Benjamin Halévy was a soldier during the Second World War. He born in France to Czechoslovakian-Jewish parents. When the war broke out, he was a sergeant in the French Army, acting as a translator for the Czechoslovakian soldiers who'd escaped their homeland and continued to fight Germany in France. He became a close associate of Vaclav Jezek, who became a very successful sniper as the war continued. After the Hess Agreement saw France align with Germany in 1940, Halévy traveled with Jezek and the other Czechoslovaks to Spain to join the Republican cause.