Arno Klarsfeld

Arno Klarsfeld was born in Paris, the son of Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, famous for their political activism and tracking down Nazi war criminals. In childhood, he often accompanied his mother on trips across Europe for her journalist work and spent summers in a kibbutz in Israel; he narrowly
escaped death when neo-Nazis blew up a car he and his mother had just gotten out of. He studied at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly and Lycée Claude-Bernard in Paris, then at the University of Paris II-Panthéon-Assas and University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, earning a master's degree in law. He also obtained a master's degree in international law at New York University. In 1988, he entered the law firm of Roland Dumas, and later worked for the Lazard Bank and the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

He became politically active with protests against the French extreme right-wing and went to Austria in 1989 to protest against the visit of Pope John Paul II to Austrian president and former Nazi Kurt Waldheim. Since then, he has been a lawyer for Fils et filles de déportés juifs de France (Association of Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees of France, or FFDJF), founded by his parents. He represented the FFDJF during the trials of Klaus Barbie and Maurice Papon, convicted of crimes against humanity in World War II.

He became a friend of French politician Nicolas Sarkozy (later President of France) and worked for him when Sarkozy was Minister of the Interior, holding several appointments to assist French children of undocumented immigrants and homeless families. He later served as a councillor of state to Prime Minister François Fillon.

In 2002, at age 37, he took Israeli nationality to show solidarity with the Israeli people and served for a while with the Magav, the Israeli border patrol, near Bethlehem. He has written widely on social issues and often speaks publicly on anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination.