In 1940, after the takeover of the city by the Soviets (a result of the Hitler-Stalin pact), Scherzer attended one year of middle school under the Soviets. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Germans and their fascists Romanian allies in 1941, Czernowitz came again under Romanian rule. Scherzer and his family (parents and sister) were forced into the city's ghetto, which they survived. After liberation by the Red Army in 1944, Julius finished middle- and high school under the Soviets.