(1909-1977)
Born Gers Morgenstein
Gers Morgenstein, known as Albert Youdine and later as Albert Jouvet during the Occupation, was born in 1909 in Baltzi, Romania. He trained as a chemist specializing in leather and hides.
In 1929, as a victim of anti-Semitism, he left his country and emigrated to Belgium, where he joined the Communist Party and quickly became the head of the “Travail juif” organization in Liège.
In 1933, he was expelled from Belgium because of his political activities and settled in France.
Starting in 1935, he served on the executive committee of the Jewish section of the M.O.I. and was in charge of cultural activities.
In October 1939, he enlisted as a volunteer and was assigned to the 1st Marching Regiment of Foreign Volunteers (RMVE), but he was discharged.
In 1940, Jacques Kaminski and Edouard Kowalski, leaders of the clandestine Jewish section of the M.O.I., were targeted as communists and left Paris. Albert Youdine temporarily replaced them in the capital. He organized the first groups of young Jewish communists within the M.O.I. who opposed the Pétain regime.
In 1942, he was arrested in Lyon and imprisoned for a time at Saint-Paul Prison as a communist.
In 1943, he headed the Jewish section of the southern zone alongside Jacques Ravine.
He led numerous operations against the occupying forces, including the derailment of a German train and the destruction of German trucks in a garage in Lyon.
In 1944, he returned to Paris and held various positions in the northern zone.
During the national uprising, he was one of the political leaders of the M.O.I. in Paris.
After the war, he worked as an editor at *Naïe Presse*, the progressive newspaper for Yiddish-speaking Jews that had been founded before the war.
He continued his involvement with the UJRE (Union of Jews for Resistance and Mutual Aid), the CCE (Commission Centrale de l’Enfance), and the MRAP (Movement Against Racism and Anti-Semitism and for Peace). He died in 1977.
References:
— *Le Maitron*, by Zoé Grumberg
— Boris Holban, 1989, *The Testament*. Published by Calmann-Lévy
— Photo: Diamant David, 1984, Fighters, Heroes, and Martyrs of the Resistance, Renouveau Publishing
