Editing Manès Sperber (section)

==Early life==
Sperber was born on 12 December 1905 in [[Zabłotów]] near [[Kolomea]], in the [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria|Austrian Galicia]] (today [[Zabolotiv]], [[Ukraine]]). Sperber grew up in the [[shtetl]] of Zabłotów in a [[Hasidic]] family. He was the son of David Mechel Sperber<ref>R' David Mechel Sperber and his [[patrilinear]] ancestors mentioned under the name Shfarber in Zabłotów's Yizkor Book [http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/zabolotov/zab002.html].</ref> and the older brother of [[Milo Sperber]] born 1911, who was to become an actor in [[UK|Britain]].

In the summer of 1916 the family fled from war to [[Vienna]], where Sperber who, having lost faith, at 13 had refused to do his [[bar mitzvah]], joined the Jewish [[Hashomer Hatzair]] youth movement. There he met [[Alfred Adler]], the founder of [[individual psychology]], and became a student and co-worker. Adler broke with him in 1932 because of differences in opinion about the connection of individual psychology and [[Marxism]].

In 1927 Sperber had moved to [[Berlin]] and joined the [[Communist Party of Germany|Communist Party]]. He lectured at the ''Berliner Gesellschaft für Individualpsychologie'', an institute for individual psychology in Berlin.

After Hitler had [[Machtergreifung|taken power]] Sperber was taken to jail, but was released after a few weeks on the grounds that he was an Austrian citizen. He emigrated first to [[Yugoslavia]] and then in 1934 to [[Paris]] where he worked for the [[Communist International]] with [[Willi Münzenberg]]. In 1938 he left the party because of the [[Great Purge|Stalinist purges]] within the party. In his writing he started to deal with [[totalitarianism]] and the role of the individual within society (''Zur Analyse der Tyrannis'').

In 1939 Sperber volunteered for the [[French Army]]. After the defeat, he took refuge in [[Cagnes]], in the so-called "zone libre" ([[Vichy France|free zone]]) of France, and had to flee with his family to [[Switzerland]] in 1942, when the deportation of Jews started in that zone too.