Marcel Stein was born in Berlin on December 2, 1921, as a French citizen. Until 1936 he went to school in Berlin and given the political developments in Germany, he entered Bedales School in England. In 1938 he started studying law and economics at the University of Paris while at the same time completing a reserve officer training program. In 1939 he volunteered for military service, obtained his commission in May 1940 and took part in the battle for France. In 1941 he continued his studies at the University of Algiers, which he had to interrupt after the Vichy government introduced the numerus clausus for Jewish students. In 1942 he escaped to Switzerland and obtained his degrees at the University of Geneva. In 1944 he returned for war service at the French General Staff and at the same time obtained his degrees at the University of Paris. In his professional life, Stein has held executive positions in major French, Swedish and Israeli industrial firms. Between 1974 and 1987 he was deputy general manager of Bank Leumi, Tel Aviv and between 1987 and 1999 he was deputy chief executive of Bank Winter, Vienna, the largest private bank in Austria. After retiring, Stein returned to Israel and engaged in writing a number of books about military history. Among his publications are three books about Manstein, one about Field Marshal Model and one about the Austrian generals who served in the German army after the annexation of Austria. His main area of interest is the perversion of the German officer corps tradition by the Nazi regime. All his books have been widely reviewed in the German-speaking press, both public and professional.
