Publisher, writer, and philanthropist, born in London, UK. He studied at Oxford, became a teacher, then entered publishing, founding his own firm in 1928. In 1936 he founded the Left Book Club, which had a great influence on the growth of the Labour Party, and after World War 2 founded the Jewish Society for Human Service, and War on Want (1951). He was knighted in 1965.
Victor Gollancz (April 9, 1893–February 8, 1967) was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.
Born in London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweller and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz; Gollancz served in the British Army in World War I. Starting with magazines, Gollancz then brought out a series of art books, after which he started signing novelists.
Gollancz formed his own publishing company in 1927; He had a knack for marketing, sometimes taking out full-page newspaper adverts for the books he published, a novelty at the time.
In addition to his highly successful publishing business, Gollancz was a prolific writer on a variety of subjects, and put his ideas into action by establishing campaigning groups.
He received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1960.
He was knighted in 1965.
On the Expulsion of Germans
In 1945 Gollancz turned his attention to crimes against the defeated Germans.
In his moving book, "Our Threatened Values," (London 1946) Gollancz described the conditions Sudeten German prisoners were faced with in a Czech concentration camp: "They live crammed together in shacks without consideration for gender and age ...
When Field Marshal Montgomery wanted to allot the Germans 1,000 calories a day and referred to the fact that the prisoners of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp had only received 800, Gollancz wrote about starvation in Germany. Gollancz pointed out that many prisoners never even received 1,000 calories. "There is really only one method of re-educating people," explained Gollancz, "namely the example that one lives oneself." Gollancz initiated a wave of generosity.
Gollancz organized a campaign for the humane treatment of German civilians. He organized an airlift to provide Germany and other war torn European countries with provisions and books. Gollancz, together with other well known British personalities, led a massive campaign in December 1946, one and a half years after the end of the war, to persuade the British government to end the ban on sending provisions to Germany and asked that they pursue a policy of reconciliation.
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