His Life's Work

Starting today, we can call Saul Friedlander a genius with total confidence. The 66-year-old historian and UCLA professor is now officially a "genius award" winner. The prize, which Friedlander didn't even know he was in the running for, is a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It is presented each year to as many as 40 new fellows (there are 32 this year) whose creative work is supported by a five-year grant.

The highest award is $375,000, based on the winner's age. Friedlander will receive the full amount.

"They told me the award is for the young and the youngish," he says. "I am the oldest of the youngish winners."

Genius "talent scouts" make nominations but remain anonymous, so he doesn't even know who recommended him. The fellows are drawn from the sciences, arts and humanities. There are no stipulations on how the money is spent.

Friedlander says he plans to continue his life's work researching the Holocaust. He will finish the second volume of a two-part history he is writing on Jewish life under Adolf Hitler, an era that, for him, has personal resonance. By mixing historical evidence with the stories of those who lived through it, he re-creates an intricate picture that avoids easy answers and stereotypes. It also goes beyond the more typical approach, which is to look only at either the aggressors or the victims.

The first volume, "Nazi Germany and the Jews, the Years of Persecution, 1933-1939" (HarperCollins, 1997), was widely praised for the analytical and evocative way that Friedlander layered German policies, Jewish responses and the role of the wider community into a three-dimensional world. He's written a dozen books on related subjects.

The second volume, Friedlander says, will integrate the same strands--political policies and human reactions--to rebuild the period from 1940 to 1945, when Jews were deported, sent to death camps and finally released at the end of the war.

In his UCLA office that overlooks blooming jacaranda trees, with books casually stacked in shelves and a scattering of chairs for visitors, Friedlander could easily be mistaken for an ivory tower academic. Actually, he is more like an excavator, starting with his own history.

"I am asked, 'How can you deal with this horrifying material for so many years?' " he says. "My work helps me keep a distance and at the same time keep a constant involvement. For 40 years I have carried it. I don't think I could have carried it otherwise."