Man of the world Samuel Pisar loved the nation that gave him a new start
For the past half-century, Australian visitors to Paris have had the choice of two embassies in the City of Light: the official one, loc-ated in a smart modernist compound, with a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower; and an unofficial sanctuary, housed in an elegant apartment, nestled in a leafy private square, near the Arc de Triomphe.
Within its sleek deco contours, looking out to a garden once occupied by Claude Debussy, the svelte figure of Samuel Pisar - a renowned human rights lawyer, author, diplomat, survivor - would regularly welcome a motley parade of Australian academics, artists, bankers, business people, diplomats, politicians or sports personalities making their way, for a variety of reasons, to or through Paris. 
His firm, friendly greeting was always the same: "Australia made me what I am today. It took a frightened, feral Polish exile from the Holocaust, put him back together and gave him hope. How can I help?" And whether you were a vice-chancellor wishing to extol the virtues of your antipodean university to the French intellectual elite, a budding artist on a first voyage of discovery and adventure, a nervous sports administrator bidding to stage an Olympic Games (Sam acted for many years as the legal counsel to the International Olympic Committee and was extremely helpful to Sydney's bid to host the 2000 Games), or a prime minister or cabinet minister wanting to discover what some of your European counterparts were really thinking, Sam was there - more than just to help; to enthuse, advise, counsel and share his extraordinary wisdom and insights.
His death at 86 on   July 27 in New York brought to a close a life of unshakable optimism; the embodiment of the rare capacity of certain exceptional individuals to transcend their immediate circumstances, in an inspiring transformation of trag-edy into triumph.
Sam was a survivor; a very young survivor of the multiple horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau, who, having narrowly escaped the efficient exterminations of Nazism, rose to international prominence as a lawyer, author and humanitarian.
Lucky enough to find himself in the American sector in Germany after World War II, Sam managed to crawl, walk, run and hitchhike to Paris, where a maternal aunt, mindful of the fragile postwar atmosphere, arranged for him to travel as far away from Europe as possible to the safety of his uncles in Australia.
Given Sam's physical and psychological shape when he arrived in Melbourne in 1946, his graduation in law from the University of Melbourne in 1953 was simply a miraculous first stage in his glittering career. Although Sam always credited Zelman Cowen with his early academic pro-gress, Cowen confided that Sam's career was to go so much further than Cowen had ever anticipated: to the academic heights of a doctorate from Harvard, in whose law review his treatise was first published; to working for the UN and the administration of US president John F. Kennedy, to a distinguished career as a lawyer and human rights advocate, and trusted adviser to presidents and prime ministers.
Given his unique personal odyssey, some of his causes were concerned directly with the existential challenges of the Shoah, such as his role in the establishment of Yad Vashem in France. But his perspective was always so much broader and inclusive. His recent role as an honorary ambassador for UNESCO was only the latest manifestation of a life dedicated to sharing his experiences in the hope of anticipating and circumventing any historical repetition of the anguish of his adolescence. If Sam were a citizen of the world, it was his life's work to ensure our world should embrace a different sort of citizenry in the 21st century. As someone who had witnessed first hand humankind's capacity for cruelty, Sam was a man of rare simplicity and humility.
He was in equal measure realistic and hopeful; though his talent and experiences often thrust him into the orbit of the good and the great, he delighted in the company of a very wide circle of friends. He was especially proud of the achievements of his daughters Alexandra, Helaina and Leah, and his stepson Antony Blinken. He rejoiced, as one who never took anything for granted, in the miracle of his beloved grandchildren, Arielle, David and Jeremiah.
Unhappy with the narrative devised to accompany his Third Symphony, Kaddish, American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein requested that Sam write an alternative narrative, one that would benefit from the authenticity of a voice forged in the adversary of war and incarceration. Thus, in the last decade of his life, with the enthusiastic encouragement of his wife Judith, herself a distinguished artistic enabler, Sam embarked on another career, performing his powerful narrative for Bernstein's symphony with orchestras from Berlin to Chicago, Budapest to Edinburgh, where his last performance of the Kaddish , a collaboration with conductor John Axelrod, soprano Rebecca Evans and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, was given at the Edinburgh International Festival in   August last year.
At the conclusion of any number of parties he and Judith hosted in Paris for every conceivable assortment of itinerant Aussies, he would bid you a fond farewell, reminding you of what Australia had done for him in those years immediately after the war and showing, through the warmth of his smile, or a mastery of the linguistic peculiarities of "Strine", the depth and sincerity of his affection for our country and its citizens.
Along with those of us fortunate to have encountered this good and great man, let us hope that we are all worthy of his legacy; an abiding belief in the decency and generosity of Australia and its values. With the passing of Samuel Pisar, Australia has lost a great and wise friend.Jonathan Mills is an Australian composer. He was a close friend and collaborator of Samuel Pisar. From 2007 to 2014 he was director of the Edinburgh International Festival.