Nazi Hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld Win Legion of Honor

Serge Klarsfeld is among the Jewish recipients of France?s Legion of Honor award. Image by getty images
Nazi hunters, a fertility specialist and a Tunisia-born journalist are among the Jewish recipients in 2013 of France’s Legion of Honor award.
The Holocaust scholar and Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, 79, was named Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor — the order’s second highest degree. His wife and partner, Beate Klarsfeld, received the lower distinction of commander, according to the French government’s annual honors decree published on Tuesday.
The Klarsfelds, who were made members of the order in 1984, were promoted for their work for preserving the memory of the Holocaust.
Dr. Rene Frydman, a gynecologist from southwestern France, also was named commander of the order for his work in advancing medicine. Frydman, 71, is responsible for the first successful in vitro fertilization, among other breakthroughs. He is the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland.
Other Jewish recipients include the Tunisia native Michele Fitoussi, a former editor of Elle women’s magazine, for her writing on social issues, including in the book “Stolen Lives.” The book, which tells the true story of a woman who was kidnapped as a girl by Morocco’s royal family, was selected for Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club in 2001.
Fitoussi was made chevalier, the lowest of the order’s five degrees of distinction.
Another chevalier was Nicole Bornstein, the top representative of the Jewish community of the Lyon region in southeastern France to CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jewish communities, for her fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Explainer: What the Israeli occupation of Gaza would mean for Israelis and Palestinians
-
Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: אונגערישע אויסשטעלונג ווײַזט רמזים פֿון הילצערנער שיל פֿון 18טן י״הTidbits: Exhibit displays remnants of 18th century wooden synagogue
אינעם 18טן יאָרהונדערט איז די קהילה אין נאַזנאַ געווען די צווייט גרעסטע אין גאַנץ טראַנסילוואַניע.
-
News Is the crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism the new Red Scare?
-
Opinion Trump’s cuts are a war on Jewish literature, thought and history itself
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.