Jacques Feldbau, topologist. The fate of a Jewish mathematician (1914 -- 1945). Transl. from the French

DOI10.1007/978-3-642-25804-6MaRDI QIDQ658961zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Michèle Audin

Publication date 9 February 2012

Published in Mathematik im Kontext (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25804-6

zbMATH Keywords

algebraic topologyfibrationsFrench mathematics under Nazi occupationpersecution of Jewish mathematicians

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies (01A70) History of algebraic topology (55-03)

Review text

Jacques Feldbau (1914-1945) was a French topologist, who took briefly part in the war as a pilot and who as a Jew was deported to Auschwitz by the Nazis. He died shortly before liberation. The booklet is a German translation of the French original from 2009. The author is a mathematician but has worked with original archival material as well, in particular from the Académie des Sciences and from private possession. In the translation some of the French contexts are explained by additional notes. Several portraits and copies from documents are reproduced as well. Feldbau's mathematical work is explained in the first chapter. Feldbau was a disciple of Charles Ehresmann and had several important results in algebraic topology. In particular he proved that a locally trivial fibration with a contractible base is globally trivial. Due to the anti-Semitic laws in Vichy France he was not permitted to teach and his name was removed from one of his papers although he had assumed the pseudonym Laboureur in order to hide his real name. Because Feldbau was a student in Strasbourg and Clermont-Ferrand (to which the university was evacuated) until 1943 before deportation, the book is at the same time a contribution to the history of the University of Strasbourg and its mathematical institute.

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Cited in

(4)

• Book review of: M. Audin, Jacques Feldbau, Topologe. Das Schicksal eines jüdischen Mathematikers (1914--1945)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 898071 (Why is no real title available?)
• The story of Jacques Feldbau
• Leray in Edelbach

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