A French writer and film director, born in Paris. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, then worked as a lecturer at the Free University of Berlin, and was drawn to Zionist activities. He was later influenced by the existentialist thought of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and since 1952 he became close to them, collaborating with them in their intellectual works and public activities. He was also interested in many issues inside and outside France, and with them, he founded the magazine Les Temps modernes, and he was one of its youngest contributors and editors. Since the 1960s, he has been increasingly interested in Jewish issues, especially the Holocaust, and in 1970 he left journalism and turned to cinema, directing a film entitled Israel, Why, which was released in 1973. In 1985, his major film Shoah (The Holocaust) was released, which deals with the subject of genocide through nine hours of dialogues and meetings with Jewish, Polish, and Nazi figures. For this film, he won the most important award given by the Jewish community in France, the French Jewish Foundation Award. He currently resides in Paris and works as director of the magazine Les Temps modernes.