Roger Ikor (28 May 1912 – 17 November 1986) was a French writer, winner of the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...

in 1955. He was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Life

Roger was of a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

ancestry. He was a student and professor of literature at the Lycee Condorcet and the Lycée Pasteur in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...

. In June 1940, he was taken

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

, and was sent to

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

. ''Les eaux mêlées'' (1955), which won the Goncourt Prize the same year, and which forms with ''The Spring Graft'', a

diptych A diptych (, ) is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by a hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world was a diptych consisting of a pair of such plates that contained a ...

titled ''Sons of Avrom'', tells the story of a Jewish family that settled in France, and was bound by blood with a non-Jewish French family. Spanning three generations, the story describes the relationship the family developed with their new homeland. One of Ikor's sons had joined a

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

, against his father's wishes, and committed suicide. In response, Ikor founded, in 1981, the

Centre contre les manipulations mentales The Centre contre les manipulations mentales or Centre Roger Ikor, widely abbreviated CCMM, is a French anti-cult association. History The association was founded in 1981 by the writer Roger Ikor, winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1955, after ...

(also known as the Centre Roger-Ikor), whose aim was to protect individuals from religious cults.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ikor, Roger 1912 births 1986 deaths Writers from Paris 20th-century French Jews Prix Goncourt winners Lycée Condorcet alumni Lycée Pasteur (Neuilly-sur-Seine) alumni Critics of new religious movements French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French male writers