SZAJKOWSKI, ZOSA

SZAJKOWSKI, ZOSA (Szajko Frydman; 1911–1978), historian and bibliographer. He was born at Zareby, Poland and lived in France from 1927 until 1941. There he was active in Communist circles until 1937 when, influenced by a group of Russian-Jewish emigré intellectuals associated with YIVO, he left the Communist movement. In 1941 he went to the U.S. and served as a paratrooper in World War II. His historical work is noteworthy for its laborious collection of original sources and ample documentation. He wrote especially on French Jewish history but also on the modern history of the Jews in Eastern Europe. His books include The Language of the Jews in the Four Communities of Comtat Venaissin (1948), Autonomy and Communal Jewish Debts During the French Revolution of 1789 (1959); Poverty and Social Welfare among French Jews, 1800–1880 (1953); Franco-Judaica; an analytical bibliography of books, pamphlets, decrees, briefs and other printed documents pertaining to the Jews in France, 1500–1788 (1962); Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetter, 1939–45 (1966); and Jews and the French Revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848 (1970).