Hélène Mouchard-Zay
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27 August 1940
Writer
Hélène Mouchard-Zay | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hélène Jacqueline Élisabeth Zay 27 August 1940 Rabat, French protectorate in Morocco |
| Died | 2 March 2026 (aged 85) Orléans, France |
| Education | Agrégation de Lettres classiques |
| Occupations | Academic Writer |
Hélène Jacqueline Élisabeth Mouchard-Zay (French: [elˈɛn ʒaklˈin ɪlˈɪse͡ɪbəθ muʃˈaʁ-zˈɛ]; 27 August 1940 – 2 March 2026) was a French academic and writer.[1]
Born in Rabat on 27 August 1940,[2] Mouchard-Zay was the daughter of Madeleine and Jean Zay.[3] Her father was imprisoned by the Vichy regime,[4] and was murdered in 1944.[5] She received an Agrégation de Lettres classiques and became a secondary schoolteacher[6] before joining the University of Orléans as a professor.[7] From 1989 to 2001, she was also involved with municipal politics in Orléans, serving on the municipal council committees for education, youth, and human rights.[8] She founded the Centre d'étude et de recherche sur les camps d'internement du Loiret (Cercil) in 1991[9] alongside Éliane Klein.[10] In 2011, Cercil created a museum and memorial to the children victimized during the Vel' d'Hiv roundup.[11] In 2009, she and her sister, Catherine Martin-Zay, donated their father's belongings to the National Archives in Paris.[12] On 1 April 2019, she was appointed to the steering committee of the Palais de la Porte Dorée.[13] In June 2022, she was presented with the Commander's Medal of the Legion of Honour by Serge Klarsfeld.[14] In 2023, she published her father's second novel, Le Château du silence, which was previously unpublished and written while he was in captivity in 1943.[15]
Mouchard-Zay was married to poet Claude Mouchard, with whom she had two sons: Jean and Daniel.[16]
Mouchard-Zay died in Orléans on 2 March 2026, at the age of 85.[17]
