Léon Poliakov


Léon Poliakov was a French historian who wrote extensively on the Holocaust and antisemitism. He is the author of The Aryan Myth.

Biography

Born into a Russian Jewish family, Poliakov lived in Italy and Germany until he settled in France.
He cofounded the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation, established to collate documentation on the persecution of Jews during World War II. He also assisted Edgar Faure at the Nuremberg Trial.
Poliakov was director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research from 1954 to 1971.
Poliakov assessed the disposition of Pope Pius XII critically on various issues connected to the Holocaust in "The Vatican and the 'Jewish Question' - The Record of the Hitler Period - And After", published in November 1950 in the influential Jewish journal Commentary.
Although little noted at the time, Poliakov's 1951 Bréviaire de la haine was the first major work on the genocide, predating Raul Hilberg's Destruction of the European Jews by a decade. It received some good reviews. Poliakov said in his memoirs that he refrained from even using the word "genocide", which was considered unfit for publication in 1951 when his groundbreaking work was first published.

Publications

L'étoile jaune - La situation des Juifs en France sous l'Occupation - Les législations nazie et vichyssoise
  • , translated 1956 as Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the Destruction of Jews in EuropeThe History of Anti-Semitism: From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews The History of Anti-Semitism: From Mohammed to the Marranos, The History of Anti-Semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner The History of Anti-Semitism: Suicidal Europe. 1870–1933 The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist and Nationalistic Ideas In Europe Jews Under the Italian Occupation
  • «Moscou, troisième Rome» Moscow, The third Rome
  • «L`Auberge des musiciens»
  • «L`envers du Destin»
  • "De l'antisionisme à l'antisémitisme"
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