Ivo John Lederer (December 11, 1929 – June 18, 1998) was a diplomatic historian who taught at

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

(1955–57),

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

(1957–65) and

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

(1965–77) universities. He also served at the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

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as Program Officer in charge of East European affairs. In 1977, he left academics to begin a second career in business.

Early life

Ivo John Lederer was born in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

, Yugoslavia, into a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish family. In 1941 Lederer's family fled from the Nazis to Italy. After three years in hiding there, the family gained passage to the United States aboard the

Liberty Ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass ...

U.S.S. Henry Gibbins. Soon after their arrival, the group was transported to a refugee center in

Oswego, New York Oswego () is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 16,921 at the 2020 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in Upstate New York, about 35 miles (55km) northwest of Syracuse. It promotes itself as "The Port C ...

. They expected to be sent back to Europe at the end of the war, however in 1945 President

Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

signed special legislation allowing the refugees to remain in the United States, becoming citizens. The story of these refugees is told in the book ''Haven, The Unknown Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees'' by

Ruth Gruber Ruth Gruber (September 30, 1911 – November 17, 2016) was an American journalist, photographer, writer, humanitarian, and United States government official. Born in Brooklyn to Russian Jewish immigrants, she was encouraged to pursue her dream ...

(New York: Putnam, 1983). In 2001, the book was also made into a film starring

Natasha Richardson Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009) was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, Richardson was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaugh ...

Hal Holbrook Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called ''Mark Twain Tonight!'' ...

and

Anne Bancroft Anne Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano; September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, tw ...

which aired on CBS in 2001. Today, the voyage and experiences of that band of refugees is chronicled by the Safe Haven Museum in Oswego, New York. A filmed interview with Dr. Lederer about that refugee experience is included on the website of the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...

. ''International Who's Who'' notes that after studying 1947-48 at City College of New York, Lederer earned his B.A. in History at the University of Colorado, Boulder, 1951. He then studied 1951-52 at the University of Virginia before earning his Masters, 1954, and Ph.D., 1957, in Contemporary Diplomatic History at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton.

Career

Dr. Lederer wrote or edited a variety of books and articles, including ''Yugoslavia at the Paris Peace Conference'' (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1963) which won the 1964

George Louis Beer Prize The George Louis Beer Prize is an award given by the American Historical Association for the best book in European international history from 1895 to the present written by a United States citizen or permanent resident. The prize was created in 1923 ...

from the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

. On June 4, 1994, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Allies' liberation of Rome, Dr. Lederer wrote an article for the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

recalling his memories of that day as a Jewish refugee hiding in that city. On December 17, 1995, following conclusion of the

Dayton Accords The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords ( Croatian: ''Daytonski sporazum'', Serbian and Bosnian: ''Dejtonski mirovni sporazum'' / Дејтонски миро ...

on former Yugoslavia, he wrote an article for The

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

entitled ''Bosnia: Precedents of Peace'' in which he stressed his view that stability in southeastern Europe was very much "in the American national interest." Lederer's students included many future leaders, among them

Timothy Wirth Timothy Endicott "Tim" Wirth (born September 22, 1939) is an American politician from Colorado who served as a Democrat in both the United States Senate (1987-1993) and the United States House of Representatives (1975–1987). He also served in ...

, U.S. Senator from Colorado and later President of the United Nations Foundation;

Strobe Talbott Nelson Strobridge Talbott III (born April 25, 1946) is an American foreign policy analyst focused on Russia. He was associated with ''Time'' magazine, and a diplomat who served as the Deputy Secretary of State from 1994 to 2001. He was president ...

, Deputy Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton and President of the Brookings Institution; and Fred Smith, CEO of Federal Express. Dr. Lederer was a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

in New York, the

, and a Senior Fellow of the Research Institute on International Change at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In 1995 he was made a Trustee of the Toynbee Prize Foundation. In January 1998 he was voted a Member of the

International Institute for Strategic Studies The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been Arundel House in London, England. The 2017 Global Go To Think T ...

(IISS) in London. In May 1998, one month before his death, he won the United Nations Society of Writers Award for his "great contributions to the worlds of history, politics and literature." Lederer's

obituary described his later career as dedicated to "bringing government and business leaders together to discuss the interaction of foreign and business policies."

James Schlesinger James Rodney Schlesinger (February 15, 1929 – March 27, 2014) was an American economist and public servant who was best known for serving as Secretary of Defense from 1973 to 1975 under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior ...

, former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Energy and

Director of Central Intelligence The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency from 1946 to 2005, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Security C ...

, quoted in the New York Times obit., called Lederer a "master at policy dialogue, knowing how best to identify and orchestrate a multiplicity of views to advance understanding" . Lederer spoke English, Italian, Croatian, German, French and Russian.

Personal life

Lederer's first marriage to Johanna Lederer (1930–2007) ended in divorce in 1965. They had two sons, Michael (

Michael Lederer Michael Lederer (born July 9, 1956 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist currently living in Berlin, Germany. Die Welt has called him "an archaeologist among the grea ...

), born 1956, and Philip, born 1959. In later years, Lederer was the long-time partner of Kitty Carlisle Hart. Their relationship lasted for 16 years until his death.

References

External links

Ivo John Lederer Papers (MS 1751).
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lederer, Ivo John 1929 births 1998 deaths Princeton University faculty Stanford University Department of History faculty Yale University faculty University of Colorado alumni Croatian Jews Yugoslav emigrants to the United States Jews who emigrated to escape Nazism 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers