01In brief
Chochana Boukhobza (born 1954) is a French Jewish author whose writing explores women’s experiences, Jewish tradition, memory, and painful pasts. Her 1989 novel Les herbes amères (The Bitter Herbs) is part of a body of work associated with younger writers giving literary form to childhood recollections and the lives of Sephardi and Oriental Jewish communities. In 2024, Flammarion published Les Femmes d'Auschwitz-Birkenau, which received the first Odette and Léon Chertok literary prize for works about genocides.
02Career and Literary Work
Boukhobza belongs to a younger generation of French Jewish writers, several of them women, who sought to give literary form to childhood recollections and to the lives of now-extinct Sephardi and Oriental Jewish communities.[1] In Les herbes amères and Un été à Jérusalem, women’s experiences are central, while the former also examines memory and the weight of an unspoken past.[1]
Her 1989 novel Les herbes amères (The Bitter Herbs) follows a heroine named Jane, who has severed herself from her past.[1] The man she loves, Marc, has died — a death the novel connects not to illness alone but to a dark, tragic history that could neither be spoken of nor indirectly approached.[1] Jane's estranged mother, a concentration-camp survivor who never received from her daughter even a few minutes of loving grace, has died by suicide.[1] The novel presents the recovery of buried memories as the condition for life to continue.[1]
Her 1999 novel Un été à Jérusalem portrays a young woman's conflicted relationship with Jewish tradition and with her father's rigorous authority.[1]
03Les Femmes d'Auschwitz-Birkenau
Published by Flammarion in March 2024, Les Femmes d'Auschwitz-Birkenau recounts the fates of women prisoners in the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps.[2] At its center is Roza Robota, a Polish Jewish prisoner who organized a resistance network within the camp.[2] Robota and three other young Polish Jewish women were hanged at Auschwitz on January 6, 1945, after stealing explosive powder.[2] To reconstruct their story, Boukhobza drew on depositions by female prisoners collected during five trials concerning SS crimes.[2]
The book received the first Odette and Léon Chertok literary prize, a new award created for works about genocides by investment banker Grégoire Chertok in homage to his parents.[2] The prize was scheduled to be presented at the Shoah Memorial in Paris.[2] Its jury included writers Emmanuel Carrère and Jean Hatzfeld, former French culture minister Rima Abdul Malak, and France's chief rabbi Haïm Korsia.[2]
Sources
- 1Jewish Virtual Library, French Literature, accessed on September 26, 2026.
- 2The Times of Israel, French, accessed on September 26, 2026.
IsraelPedia Question & Answers
Who is Chochana Boukhobza?
Chochana Boukhobza (born 1954) is a French Jewish author whose writing explores women's experiences, Jewish tradition, memory, and painful pasts. She belongs to a younger generation of French Jewish writers who sought to give literary form to childhood recollections and to the lives of now-extinct Sephardi and Oriental Jewish communities.
What is Chochana Boukhobza's novel Les herbes amères about?
Les herbes amères (The Bitter Herbs), published in 1989, follows a heroine named Jane who has severed herself from her past. The man she loves has died in connection with a dark, tragic history that could neither be spoken of nor approached, and Jane's estranged mother, a concentration-camp survivor, has died by suicide. The novel presents the recovery of buried memories as the condition for life to continue.
What is Chochana Boukhobza's novel Un été à Jérusalem about?
Published in 1999, Un été à Jérusalem portrays a young woman's conflicted relationship with Jewish tradition and with her father's rigorous authority.
What is Chochana Boukhobza's book Les Femmes d'Auschwitz-Birkenau about?
Published by Flammarion in March 2024, Les Femmes d'Auschwitz-Birkenau recounts the fates of women prisoners in the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps. At its center is Roza Robota, a Polish Jewish prisoner who organized a resistance network within the camp. Robota and three other young Polish Jewish women were hanged at Auschwitz on January 6, 1945, after stealing explosive powder. To reconstruct their story, Boukhobza drew on depositions by female prisoners collected during five trials concerning SS crimes.
What prize did Les Femmes d'Auschwitz-Birkenau receive, and what is that prize?
Les Femmes d'Auschwitz-Birkenau received the first Odette and Léon Chertok literary prize, a new award created for works about genocides by investment banker Grégoire Chertok in homage to his parents. The prize was scheduled to be presented at the Shoah Memorial in Paris, and its jury included writers Emmanuel Carrère and Jean Hatzfeld, former French culture minister Rima Abdul Malak, and France's chief rabbi Haïm Korsia.