Jacques Lanzmann

Lanzmann spent the early part of his life in Auvergne. His parents, Paulette (Grobermann) and Armand Lanzmann, divorced shortly before World War II and, at the age of 12, he became a farmhand. Lanzmann was Jewish and, following the Battle of France, he, his mother and his siblings, pretended to be Moroccan Arabs in order to escape persecution by the Vichy regime. In 1943, Lanzmann and his elder brother Claude (later a noted documentary-maker) joined the Communist resistance. Jacques was taken captive by the Germans and was due to be executed by firing squad, but escaped. Lanzmann's father was one of the leading local figures in the rival Mouvements Unis de la Résistance, but Jacques and Claude were not aware of this until February 1944.

After the war, Lanzmann worked in Paris as builder and a welder, and showed promise as a painter. During the early 1950s, he moved to Chile for two years, where he worked as a copper miner.

Lanzmann was married four times and had seven children.

He was a keen traveler and walker. He crossed nearly all of the world's deserts, and explored the Sahara Desert at the age of 19. He came close to death while crossing the Taklamakan Desert in 1990. While crossing the Sinai Desert in 1985 he was arrested by Egyptian soldiers on suspicion of spying. In his suitcase, he had a cutting of a Le Monde profile dedicated to him, and was able to secure his release by using this to prove his identity.

He died on 21 June 2006, aged 79, in Paris and his funeral was held on 26 June at the Père-Lachaise cemetery. French President Jacques Chirac paid tribute, saying: "His brilliant songs left an imprint on their era. They will remain for a long time in the hearts of the French." ...

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