Prof. Simon Askenazy, famous Polish-Jewish historian and diplomat who represented Poland at the League of Nations in Geneva for a number of years, died here last night at the age of 68.
Prof. Askenazy was one of the outstanding Polish historians, occupying a chair of philosophy in Warsaw University since 1927. Previously, from 1897, he was professor of history at Lemberg University.
Born in the township of Zawichwost, near Radom, in the Polish part of Russia, Prof. Askenazy studied in the universities of Warsaw and Goeetingen. In 1920 he was appointed delegate of the Polish government to the League of Nations, and kept this post for three years. He was recalled from Geneva when the anti-Semitic National Democratic Party came into power in 1923.
The principal works of Prof. Askenazy are considered the best sources of Polish history. They deal mainly with Polish history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He was especially prominent for his three-volume work, “Napoleon and Poland.”
Prof. Askenazy has also written a number of historical treatises on the history of the Jews in Poland. His death is considered a great loss not only to the Jews of Poland but to the entire Polish nation.
Funeral services will be held on Monday. Burial will be in the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
