Serge Klarsfeld

Serge Klarsfeld, born on September 17, 1935, in Bucharest, Romania, is a prominent French activist and renowned Nazi hunter celebrated for his relentless efforts to document the Holocaust and pursue justice for war criminals. A member of a Romanian Jewish family that relocated to France before World War II, Klarsfeld's life was profoundly impacted when his father was arrested by the SS in Nice in 1943 and subsequently perished at Auschwitz.

During the war, Serge found refuge in a home for Jewish children run by the Œuvre de secours aux enfants, a French organization dedicated to aiding Jewish youth. His mother and sister survived with the help of the French Resistance.

In the 1960s, Klarsfeld co-founded the Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France (Association des fils et filles des déportés juifs de France), a group instrumental in documenting cases and identifying officials like Klaus Barbie and Maurice Papon for prosecution, holding them accountable for the atrocities committed against Jews during the Holocaust.

Klarsfeld and his wife, Beate, were vocal opponents of anti-Zionism and protested against the Eastern Bloc's support of the PLO prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their contributions have been recognized with prestigious honors, including France's Legion of Honour, which was elevated to Grand officier in 2014. In 2015, UNESCO named them "Honorary Ambassadors and Special Envoys for Education about the Holocaust and the Prevention of Genocide." Married in 1963, the couple has one son, Arno, who is a human rights lawyer.