Marek Halter

Marek Halter (born 27 January 1936) is a Polish-born French writer, artist, and human rights activist, who is best known for his historical novels, which have been translated into many languages. He also directed a film, The Righteous, released in 1994.

Early life and education

Halter is Jewish, and was born in Warsaw, Poland on 27 January 1936. spending the remainder of the war in Ukraine and Uzbekistan, where he learned to speak the Uzbek language. He learnt Spanish while in Argentina.

Many of his books focus on the theme of memory, including that of his own family, the history of the Jewish people, and specifically the Holocaust. Halter is also narrator and interviewer in the film, in which he asks the question of people who saved Jews during the war "Why did you do it?". Halter and his wife, Clara, traced around 200 such Gentiles, creating many hours of videotape and around 1,000 pages of interview transcripts. They went through them all, verified their stories, initially choosing 42 stories. They refined it down to 36 men and women in 14 countries, after he "remembered the Talmudic tradition that each generation must produce 36 'righteous' for the world to continue". The film took a year to film and another year to edit, and was selected for screening at the Berlin Film Festival in February 1995.

Activism and other activities In 1967, Halter founded a committee for a negotiated peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis, playing a significant role in arranging the first official meetings between the two groups.

Recognition and awards In 1954, he received the Deauville international prize, and was also awarded a prize at the Biennale d'Ancone.

The Book of Abraham (1986) won the Prix Maison de la Presse and the Prix du Livre Inter.

In 2007, French magazines Le Point and Le Nouvel Observateur accused Halter of lying about several parts of his life.

In February 2021, he was assaulted by intruders at his home in Paris, who took nothing except his keys. This was not the first time he had been assaulted, with previous attempts having been accompanied by "a few anti-Semitic or racist words".

Halter remarried in 2023. Daughter of Jacques Derogy, Marianne Weitzmann was 15 years old when she first met Marek. They met in 2020 and were married in the 3ème arrondissement of Paris on 7 February 2023. She died on 21 August 2024.

Selected works Halter's non-fiction works include: The Jester And the Kings: a Political Biography (1989) Stories of Deliverance: Speaking with Men And Women Who Rescued Jews from the Holocaust (1998)

Footnotes