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Raul Hilberg was mentored by Franz Neumann in his early academic career. Neumann was a German-born American political scientist and legal theorist who is best known for his work on Theory of totalitarianism. He was a professor at Columbia University from 1945 until his death in 1954. Hilberg was a student of Neumann's at Columbia, and he credits Neumann with helping him to develop his interest in the Holocaust.