Yuri was born in Saint Petersburg in 1914 in a bourgeois and intellectual family of publishers. Between the ages of five and ten, he learned the value of knowledge and languages from his family, and in school, was nurtured in the idealistic precepts of the early years of the Bolshevik Revolution. These experiences gave him a lasting sense of justice, of fraternity, and a love of poetry.
In 1924, Yuri, his mother and his paternal grandparents emigrated to Berlin. His father, David, stayed in the Soviet Union to save his family. Yuri was to be enrolled in the most prestigious school in the city for which his level of knowledge was largely sufficient to be admitted. The day he was invited for an interview, Yuri saw a teacher hit a student. That was something he could not accept, and he decided to flunk the entrance exam out of integrity. He studied in a lesser-known school, but one that was better adapted to his personality and belief in the humane.
TO BE CONTINUED…