Leon Alexander was born Leon Aleksander Landau in Warsaw, Poland on 21 February 1907. As a boy, Leon Aleksander attended the Polish Gorski Gymnasium at Warsaw (1916-1924). He studied at Warsaw University 1924-1928. He received a diploma from the Faculty of Law of Warsaw University, dated June 13th, 1928.
After being arrested, along with other lawyers of Warsaw, by the Germans when they occupied the Polish capital, Leon succeeded in convincing the Nazi guard of their convoy to allow him and his 18 comrades to go free. He returned with them clandestinely to Warsaw, with the help of peasants. There he was able to enter the resistance network which helped him to escape Poland via Russia to Bucharest. He remained in Rumania and wrote articles to denounce the situation in his country, until the pro-Nazi Rumanians forced him to flee again in danger for his life. He changed his name to Leon Alexander and escaped via Asia. He eventually arrived in the United States on March 16th, 1941 on a transit visa to Guatemala.
Prominent Americans of Polish origin, members of the Paderewski family in Chicago, sponsored his refugee application, and Leon Alexander was allowed to stay in the United States of America. Soon after the USA declared war on Japan and Germany, Leon Alexander enlisted in the US Army in January 1942. After much work, he succeeded in having his competencies recognised by the US War Department, who requisitioned him as a Chief Warrant Officer in the Judge Advocate Corps of the US Army.
Through a series of extraordinary events, Leon Alexander was assigned to investigate the concentration camp of Buchenwald. This led to his being named to the War Crimes investigation team that prepared the accusations against the criminals of Nazi Germany. Leon Alexander spent three months with full access to the library and papers of Himmler.
Leon Alexander left the US Armed Forces following the first round of the Nuremburg trials in April 1947. He came directly to Paris, France, where he enrolled in the University of Paris School of Law and defended a doctoral thesis on the administration of justice in liberated France.
Dr. Leon Alexander died in France on 28th February 1993. He is now buried in the American Legion Mausoleum, New Town Cemetery, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
Source of information and photo: American Legion Paris Post 1