Zone libre
Born in Paris, France on 2 April 1928, Gainsbourg was the son of Jewish Russian migrants, Joseph Ginsburg (27 March 1896, in Feodosia, Russian Empire — 22 April 1971, in Paris) and Olga (née Besman; 15 January 1894, in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) – 16 March 1985, in Paris), who fled to Paris via Istanbul, Ottoman Empire after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Joseph Ginsburg was a classically trained musician whose profession was playing the piano in cabarets and casinos; he taught his children—Gainsbourg and his twin sister Liliane—to play the piano. Gainsbourg's childhood was profoundly affected by the occupation of France by Germany during World War II. The identifying yellow star that Jews were required to wear haunted Gainsbourg; in later years he was able to transmute this memory into creative inspiration. During the occupation, the Jewish Ginsburg family was able to make their way from Paris to Limoges, traveling under false papers. Limoges was in the Zone libre under the administration of the collaborationist Vichy government and still a perilous refuge for Jews. He attended the Lycée Condorcet high school in Paris but dropped out before completing his "Baccalauréat".