Saul Friedländer
| Saul Friedländer | |
|---|---|
Saul Friedländer
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| Born |
October 11, 1932 Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| Occupation | Essayist, historian, Professor of History at UCLA |
| Nationality | Israeli/American |
| Period | 20th century, Holocaust, Nazism |
| Genre | Historical, essay |
| Spouse | Orna Kenan |
| Children | Eli, David, Michal |
| Website | |
| www |
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Saul Friedländer (Hebrew: שאול פרידלנדר; born October 11, 1932) is an award-winning Israeli/American historian and currently a professor emeritus of history at UCLA.
Saul Friedländer was born in Prague to a family of German-speaking Jews. He grew up in France and experienced the German Occupation of 1940–1944. From 1942 until 1946, Friedländer was hidden in a Catholic boarding school in Montlucon, near Vichy. While in hiding, he converted to Roman Catholicism and later began preparing for the Catholic priesthood. His parents attempted to flee to Switzerland, were arrested instead by Vichy French gendarmes, turned over to the Germans and were gassed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Not until 1946 did Friedländer learn the fate of his parents.
After 1946, Friedländer grew more consciously aware of his Jewish identity and became a Zionist. In 1948, Friedländer emigrated to Israel on the Irgun ship Altalena. After finishing high school, he served in the Israeli Army. From 1953-55, he studied political science in Paris. Later, Friedländer served as secretary to Nachum Goldman, then President of the Zionist Organization and the World Jewish Congress. In 1959, he became an assistant to Shimon Peres, then vice-minister of defense. Late in the 1980s, Friedländer moved politically further to the left and was active in the Peace Now group.
In 1963, he received his PhD from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, where he taught until 1988. Friedländer taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Tel Aviv University. In 1969 he wrote a biography of Kurt Gerstein. Since 1988 he has been Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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