Léon Poliakov (russian: Лев Поляков; 25 November 1910,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

– 8 December 1997,

Orsay Orsay () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. A fortified location of the Chevreuse valley since the 8th centur ...

) was a French historian who wrote extensively on

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

and

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and wrote ''The Aryan Myth''. Born into a Russian

Jewish 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""The ...

family, Poliakov lived in Italy and Germany until he settled in France. He cofounded the

Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation The Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation is an independent French organization founded by Isaac Schneersohn in 1943 in the town of Grenoble, France during the Second World War to preserve the evidence of Nazi war crimes for future gener ...

, established to collate documentation on the persecution of Jews during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He also assisted

Edgar Faure Edgar Jean Faure (; 18 August 1908 – 30 March 1988) was a French politician, lawyer, essayist, historian and memoirist who served as Prime Minister of France in 1952 and again between 1955 and 1956.Nuremberg Trial The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...

. Poliakov was director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research (

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science Basic research, also called pure research o ...

) from 1954 to 1971. According to historian Jos Sanchez, Poliakov was the first scholar to assess the disposition of

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

critically on various issues connected to the Holocaust. In November 1950, Poliakov wrote "The Vatican and the 'Jewish Question' - The Record of the Hitler Period-And After" in the influential Jewish journal ''

Commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

''. The article was the first to consider the attitude of the papacy during

and the Holocaust, but it was not until 1963, when German playwright

Rolf Hochhuth Rolf Hochhuth (; 1 April 1931 – 13 May 2020) was a German author and playwright, best known for his 1963 drama '' The Deputy'', which insinuates Pope Pius XII's indifference to Hitler's extermination of the Jews, and he remained a controversial ...

published his play '' Der Stellvertreter'', that discussion of Poliakov's initial investigations in this area took on worldwide significance. Although little noted at the time, Poliakov's 1951 ''Breviaire de la haine'' ("Harvest of Hate") was the first major work on the

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

, predating

Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (June 2, 1926 – August 4, 2007) was a Jewish Austrian-born American political scientist and historian. He was widely considered to be the preeminent scholar on the Holocaust. Christopher R. Browning has called him the founding fath ...

's ''

Destruction of the European Jews ''The Destruction of the European Jews'' is a 1961 book by historian Raul Hilberg. Hilberg revised his work in 1985, and it appeared in a new three-volume edition. It is largely held to be the first comprehensive historical study of the Holocau ...

'' by a decade. It received some good reviews. Poliakov said in his ''Memoires'' that he refrained from even using the word "genocide", which was considered unfit for publication in 1951 when his groundbreaking work was first published. as cited in p247 of

Publications

* ''L'étoile jaune - La situation des Juifs en France sous l'Occupation - Les législations nazie et vichyssoise'' (Editions Grancher, October 1999 - three texts: a book of 1949, an article in ''Historia'' magazine in 1968 and a text of 1980) * , translated 1956 as ''Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the Destruction of Jews in Europe'' * ''The History of Anti-Semitism: From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews'' (orig. 1955; this tr. 1966; repr. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) * ''The History of Anti-Semitism: From Mohammed to the Marranos'' (orig. 1961; tr. 1973; repr. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) , * ''The History of Anti-Semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner'' (orig. 1968; tr. 1975; repr. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) [preview a
Google Books
* ''The History of Anti-Semitism: Suicidal Europe. 1870–1933'' (orig. 1977; tr. 1984; repr. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) [preview a
Google Books
* ''The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist and Nationalistic Ideas In Europe'' (Barnes & Noble Books (1996)) * ''Jews Under the Italian Occupation'' (coauthored with Jacques Sabille) (Howard Fertig; 1st American ed edition (December, 1983)) * «Moscou, troisième Rome» ''Moscow, The third Rome'' * «L`Auberge des musiciens» (memoir) * «L`envers du Destin» (autobiography) * "De l'antisionisme à l'antisémitisme" (1969) *

Publications

References

See also