Jacqueline Lévi-Valensi (1932–2004)

Jacqueline Lévi-Valensi, née Rosenblum, was born in Paris, France, to a Jewish family originally from Ukraine and Lithuania. Her parents and brother were arrested in 1942 during World War II and killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz. She escaped and took refuge with a maternal uncle in a village in Berry in central France. After the war, she passed her baccalaureate and studied literature at the Sorbonne. After obtained the aggregation (civil service teaching certificate), she was appointed to posts at high schools in Aix-en-Provence and Laon; in 1959, she transferred to the Lycée Fromentin in Algiers. She was soon teaching at the University of Algiers. There she met her husband, André Lévi-Valensi, an associate professor of medicine. In 1965, they returned to France and were both appointed to the faculty of the University of Picardie in Amiens. She became dean of literature and a recognized authority on the novels of Albert Camus and more broadly on the 20th century novel. Among her works was Albert Camus ou la Naissance d’un romancier (Albert Camus or Birth of a Novelist); Réflexions sur le terrorisme: Albert Camus (Reflections on Terrorism: Albert Camus), and Camus à Combat: Éditoriaux et articles d'Albert Camus, 1944-1947 (Camus at "Combat": Writing 1944-1947). She co-founded and presided over the Society of Camus Studies and initiated a new edition of the Complete Works of Camus, published beginning in 2006. She was a member of the Fils et filles de déportés juifs de France (Association of Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France) founded by Serge Klarsfeld, and spoke out tirelessly on the Holocaust, especially among young people.