Léon Centner (born December 16, 1919, near Warsaw, Poland; died June 13, 2002, in Paris, France) was a French resistance fighter, bookseller, bibliophile and publisher. In 1966, Centner co-founded the influential French publishing house Éditions d'histoire sociale international
(EDHIS)
ref name=":1"> which specialised in republishing significant works of social history and 19th century periodicals.

Biography

Léon Centner was born in Warsaw into a Polish Jewish family. His family moved to France in 1923, when he was 4 years old. He obtained his school certificate at the age of 13, then worked in a hosiery workshop. During the Second World War, he left Paris for Grenoble, where he joined the communist resistance unit

MOI Moi or MOI may refer to: People * Moi (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Moisés Delgado (born 1994), Spanish footballer commonly known as simply Moi * Moisés Rodríguez (born 1997), Spanish footballer commonly known as ...

. He was active in the National Movement Against Racism (MNCR), whose goal was to help children at risk of deportation, and joined the combat groups of UJRE in Lyon. He played an important role in the national distribution of the clandestine newspapers

J'accuse "''J'Accuse...!''" (; "I Accuse...!") is an open letter, written by Émile Zola in response to the events of the Dreyfus affair, that was published on 13 January 1898 in the newspaper ''L'Aurore''. Zola addressed the president of France, Félix ...

and Fraternité, produced false papers for members of the resistance and financed resistance activity. After the war, he resumed his work in hosiery alongside his brother Oscar Centner and was an active member of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

until his exclusion from the party in 1956. He became a naturalized French citizen and married Annette Szalai, a Hungarian who Centner had met through the MNCR. Annette herself had been an important resistance fighter under the pseudonym Renée Girard.

From bibliophile to publisher

Centner was an avid collector of rare books. He made friends with second-hand booksellers and opened a shop, first on Rue Vivienne, then under the arcades of the

Palais-Royal The Palais-Royal () is a former French royal palace located on Rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre Palace, Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Ca ...

. In 1966, he co-founded EDHIS with the bookseller Michel Bernstein, which specialized in the reprinting of rare texts. EDHIS reprinted '' Le Fils du Père Duchêne's'' ''Éphémérides du citoyen'' in ten volumes, in collaboration with

Albert Soboul Albert Marius Soboul (27 April 1914 – 11 September 1982) was a historian of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. A professor at the Sorbonne, he was chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of numerous influenti ...

, as well as other hard-to-find 19th century works. EDHIS's publications focused on the social revolutions of the 19th century and the development of the

Labour movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

, as well as the beginnings of the French Revolution of 1789. EDHIS ceased printing in 1995. Léon Centner was a member of the Society for Robespierrist Studies for 25 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Centner, Leon French Jews French Resistance French publishers (people) Jewish socialists Polish emigrants to France Polish Jews 1919 births 2002 deaths Polish publishers (people)