1942 proved to be the most devastating year of Yuri
Gutsatz’s life. Having signed up for the Foreign Legion, Yuri stayed in
Marseille after a year of service. As a Russian Jew, it was unsafe for him to return
to occupied Paris. Sadly, his mother Alvina and his grandparents were trapped
by the German occupation and unable to flee. In July of 1942 Alvina’s
letters to Yuri stopped and he was later to discover that she and his
grand-mother Gueni had been victims of the Vel d’Hiv
roundup and taken to Auschwitz where they were not heard from again.
Meanwhile, David Gutsatz died the same year in Leningrad, most likely due to
the famine and disease during the siege which saw a million persons lose
their lives.
On Yuri’s return to Paris in 1945, he found himself alone in the world. His
grief and loneliness are unimaginable, but a light shone through the darkness
when he met a young woman named Arlette, whom he remained in love with until
his dying day. But that’s another story…
The photograph above is from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and shows Jews in
occupied Paris before the purge.
