Walter Laqueur

Walter Zeev Laqueur (born 26 May 1921) [[1]]( is a German/Polish born historian, political commentator, terrorologist and Zionist, who escaped the Nazi's and fled to Palestine in 1938, later living and working in the UK and US. Laqueur was born on 26 May 1921 in Breslau, Germany (modern Wrocław, Poland) to a Jewish family. He attended local schools in Breslau, and graduated from Johannes Gymnasium (St John's High School) in February 1938. That November he left Germany for the British Mandate of Palestine. His parents, Fritz and Else Laqueur, who were unable to leave, later died in the Holocaust. He lived in Palestine/Israel 1938-53 and since then in the UK and USA. [[2]]( In 1953 Laqueur became involved with the Congress for Cultural Freedom , a CIA front group which had been set up to spread anti-communist propaganda amongst European intellectuals. Laqueur writes that he 'visited the headquarters of the Congress for Cultural Freedom in Paris for the first time in May 1953.' According to Laqueur, he had ‘been recommended by George Lichtheim") ', who had told the head of the Congress Michael Josselson that he was 'some latter-day Rastignac, a young man from the provinces, unpolished, a self-made man but of a certain promise, eager to continue his education in Europe.’ [[6]]( Laqueur's cousin Nicholas Nabokov") was also Josselson’s ‘nominal boss’. [[7]]( That summer Josselson introduced Laqueur to the political and intellectual figures around the Congress including the philosopher Raymond Aron") and the anti-communist trade unionist Irving Brown . Laqueur then accepted Josselson's offer that he become the Congress's corespondent in Israel. [[8]]( A 1956 article in the Guardian states that Laqueur ‘first made his mark as a political commentator under the name 'Mark Alexander’, suggesting that he used that pseudonym in this period. [[9]]( In 1964, after editing Survey") for nine years, Laqueur became Director of the Wiener Library") , the world's oldest Holocaust memorial institution. Laqueur replaced the library's founder Alfred Wiener, who died in February 1964. According to the library's website, 'Laqueur's priority was to gain the funding necessary to support the work of the Library. He also set up the Journal of Contemporary History") and organised many events, conferences and seminars.' [[12]]( Laqueur established the Journal of Contemporary History") with fellow historian George Mosse") . He also set up the Institute of Contemporary History") . [[13]]( [[14]]( According to Fred Landis, during his time in London, Laqueur was also the 'principal director' of a Congress funded propaganda operation called Information Bulletin Ltd . Information Bulletin Ltd was the first of a series of CIA funded propaganda opertions. It later became Forum Information Services") , which then became Forum World Features . [[15]]( Laqueur's involvement is not mentioned in his account of his career on his own website.[[16]]( During the 1970s Laqueur became one of a small group of 'terrorism experts' who formed the nucleus of what was to become a highly influential, and arguably highly compromised, academic field. In 1977 he wrote a further article on terrorism in the Journal of Contemporary History [[21]]( and his book Terrorism was published. The book has been highly influential in its field. One study found it to be the second most cited book on the subject. Interestingly the same study found that its influence has grown dramatically in recent years, finding that it had moved from being the tenth most cited publication in 1983 to the second most cited in 2003. [[22]]( His main works deal with European history in the 19th and 20th century, especially the Russian history , German history and the Middle East. He written on many topics from the German Youth Movement, Zionism, Israeli history, the cultural history of the Weimar Republic and Russia, Communism, the Holocaust, fascism and diplomatic history of the Cold War. His books have been t