Elisabeth Maxwell

Maxwell was born Elisabeth Jenny Jeanne Meynard in La Grive, in the commune of Saint-Alban-de-Roche, France, to Louis "Paul" Meynard and Colombe (née Petel) Meynard. Paul Meynard was a descendant of Protestant Huguenot aristocracy (or old bourgeoisie), while Colombe Meynard was a Roman Catholic whose marriage to a Protestant resulted in her excommunication. She had one sibling, an older sister, Yvonne. In 1932, she returned to France. Meynard studied law at the Sorbonne. == Family ==

In September 1944, after the Liberation of Paris, she met Czechoslovak-born British Army Captain Robert Maxwell, while working as an interpreter for the Welcome Committee, which introduced French people to Allied officers; they married on 15 March 1945. At first, the family lived on a budget, but later moved into a mansion at Broomfield, Esher. == Education and career ==

In her forties, Maxwell worked in public relations for her husband's company and campaigned for him in the general election of 1964; he was elected as the Labour MP for Buckingham. She then enrolled at Oxford in 1970 and earned a BA degree in modern languages at St Hugh's College in 1974. In 1981, at the age of 60, Maxwell was awarded a PhD in French Literature from the University of Oxford for her thesis on The Art of Letter Writing in France, 1789–1830. Her thesis work focused on research about a Protestant circle in Lyons. Maxwell researched her husband's Jewish relatives who perished under Nazi rule, and discovered they amounted in total to over 300 of his immediate and extended family. In 1988, Maxwell organized a conference in both Oxford and London, titled "Remembering for the Future". In November 1991, Maxwell's husband, Robert, was found dead, floating in the waters off the Canary Islands near his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine. Following his mysterious death, evidence emerged that Robert Maxwell had plundered his employees' pension funds from the Mirror Group. Their sons, Ian and Kevin, were arrested on fraud charges in June 1992 but acquitted in January 1996. Following the pension scandal, Maxwell reportedly left the UK and spent time at her chateau in France. In a 1995 interview with The New York Times, she reflected on her marriage stating "The worst years of my life were 1981 to 1991. I was at his beck and call with no kudos, nothing was right. What saved me was my work on the Holocaust." In her seventies and early eighties, Maxwell travelled and lectured widely on Holocaust studies. According to BBC News, Maxwell served as the executive chairman of the Remembering for the Future organization and was the opening speaker for the London conference Evil and Indifference: Is there an End to Genocide? held at Westminster Hall in July 2000. She was on the executive committee of the International Council of Christians and Jews and founded the International Conference on the Holocaust. She was further recognized with an Honorary Fellowship at Tel Aviv University, and received the Eternal Flame Award of the Anne Frank Institute of Philadelphia. == Death ==

In later life, Maxwell spent most of her time in Dordogne, France, with her sister Yvonne Meynard Vittoz LaForce (1918–2011) ==References==