Jean-Luc Leleu is a CNRS research engineer at the Research Center for Quantitative History—World War II branch—and a specialist in the political and military history of National Socialist Germany. He is the author of numerous articles on the subject. He directs and regularly participates in scientific works such as Les Propagandes: actualisations et confrontations (L' Harmattan, 2006) or Pourquoi résister? Resister pour quoi faire? (CRHQ, 2006).

For Waffen SS, his first book, he won the Military History Prize from the French Defense Ministry.