Samuel Wainer was a Brazilian journalist and author. Wainer was born into a Jewish family from Bessarabia, more precisely in the Edinet District, then part of the Russian Empire. His family immigrated to Brazil in 1912, settling in São Paulo. He was a reporter of Diários Associados in 1950, when he interviewed Getúlio Vargas, with whom he would later keep a close friendship. He also faced strong oppo- sition from Carlos Lacerda and Assis Chateaubriand during his career, specially when he founded his own newspaper, that would openly support Vargas presidency. Wainer was the only Brazilian and Latin American journalist present at theNuremberg Trials. In 1938 he founded and became editor of the pro-communist opposition ma- gazine Diretrizes, and in 1951 of the pro-government daily Ultima Hora. Beginning with pro-communist positions and opposition to President Getulio Vargas, Wainer later progressed tothe right and became a close ally of Vargas and one of the country's most influential journalists, known as "Grande Samuel". From 1964 he lived in exile in Paris. At this time, the newspaper Ultima Hora he was transferred from Rio de Janeiro to S o Paulo, where Wainer returned a few years later. The second wife was the Brazilian journalist and model Danuza Leão (sister of the singer Nara Leão), with whom she had three children: daughter Debora Weiner and sons Samuel Weiner (journalist, born in 1955) and Bruno Wainer (producer, born in 1960).