Gercberg was a member of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). In 1919 he joined the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). He served in the Red Army, fighting on the Western Front against Poland were he was wounded. In 1923 he joined the OGPU. He worked as an engineer at a Black Sea oil company. On August 24, 1937, he was arrested by the NKVD. After the trial during the Great Purge, he was sentenced to death on October 26, 1937 and executed.