Raya-Ginette Karesenty was the youngest of 5 children of a well-off Sephardic family, born in Oran, Algeria in January, 1925. The family lived in Paris between 1930 and 1940, when part of the family returned to Algeria after the capitulation of France to the Germans in June, 1940. Her father remained in Paris to care for an ailing brother and was later deported to Auschwitz.
The Karsenty Family was known for its excellent touring productions of French plays, which traveled all over France and to several continents. Raya-Ginette’s brother Bernard and her cousin Roger Carcassonne were major figures in the armed Resistance organized to help the Allies invade North Africa during Operation Torch. She carried out various missions in preparation for the invasion, transporting arms and messages, even writing them in her young girl’s handwriting.
At the age of 21 in 1946, she worked for the Ministry of Defense and entered the Psychology Department of the Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage and worked there as a highly-valued assistant for 7 years. She was responsible for interviewing and reviewing potential candidates for delicate missions.
She began writing plays, radio plays, and plays for television, just as the industry began. She held various positions at the French television ORTF for many years. "Pour l’amour de vous," published in 1991, gives some family history and recounts her life before, during and after the war. In 1959, she and Marie-José Brissac adapted Saint-Exupéry’s novel "Vol de nuit" or "Night Flight"; it was televised on June 18, 1959. Ms. Karsenty also adapted two short stories by Irwin Shaw into French in the form of radio or screenplays, “Les Jeunes femmes en robes d’été” and “Rencontre de veuves.” Escale à Shangri-la ou “Les Horizons retrouvés” was published in 1994; it is a collection of short plays destined for the theater, the radio, or television that do not appear to have been produced.
