Leni yahil biography

German-born Israeli historian, specializing in the Holocaust & Danish Jewry (1912-2007)

Leni Yahil (1912–2007), née Leni Westphal, was a German-born^[1]Israelihistorian,^[2][3] specializing in the Holocaust and Danish Jewry.^[4][5]

Early life

Leni was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1912, and was raised in Potsdam, Germany.^[1] She was a sixth-generation descent of Moses Mendelssohn's family, as well as a granddaughter of James Simon.^[1] Her father, Ernst Westphal, was a judge.^[1] Yahil studied history at the universities of Munich and Berlin.^[1] Afterwards, she was accepted into the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (College of Judaic Studies) in Berlin, but had her education interrupted by the Nazi rise to power in Germany in 1933.^[1] She joined a Jewish youth movement called Werkleute (Workmen) and eventually became one of its leaders.^[1]