David Kranzler

David Kranzler (May 19, 1930 – November 7, 2007) was a librarian, researcher and historian specializing in those who aided Jews during the Holocaust.

Kranzler was born in Germany. His family fled the Nazis to the United States in 1937 when he was a child, and he was raised in New York. He studied for a BA (1953) and an MA (1958) at Brooklyn College, for an M.L.S. degree (1957) at Columbia University, and for his doctorate (1971) at Yeshiva University. After working as a school librarian, he joined the faculty of Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1969, and was a Professor in the Library Department there until his retirement in 1988. Kranzler was one of the founders and the first Director of the Holocaust Resource Center and Archives at Queensborough Community College, which has since been renamed the Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives.

He was a leading historian on the subject of aiding the Jews during the Holocaust, a field which his works founded. He was among the first to document the activities of Orthodox Jewish organizations, such as the Vaad Ha-hatzala and Agudath Israel. Historian Alex Grobman referred to Kranzler as "the pioneer of research on Orthodox Jewry during the war." He also researched and created awareness for the mid-1944 Swiss grassroots protests, including the mid-1944 Swiss Press Campaign, triggered by George Mantello publicizing the Bratislava Working Group Vrba-Wetzler report. Kranzler was convinced that these actions led to stopping of the transports from Hungary in mid-1944 and enabled the Raoul Wallenberg mission and other important initiatives in Hungary and elsewhere.

...
Wikipedia