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40 Insights into the Lives of Famous War Veterans

Khalid Elhassan July 13, 2019 26 min

7. The world’s most famous mime was also a French Resistance hero

Marcel Marceau was the world’s most famous mime. Before becoming world famous, however, Marceau spent most of WWII in hiding, and working for the French Resistance. His father, a Jewish butcher, had fled from the Nazi invasion in 1940, but was captured, and died in Auschwitz. Marcel moved to Paris with a new name and forged identity papers, and adopting the surname “Marceau” after a French Revolutionary War general, joined the Resistance.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.