Gorodiscas family papers

Bencelis Gorodiscas was born in 1889 in Kovno, Lithuania. In 1926, he married Malka Mendrzycka and the couple settled in Paris, where Bencelis was a butcher in the Marais neighborhood. In 1933, their daughter, Marguerite, was born. Soon after the war broke out, the family moved to Saint-Saturnin, where they found a room and stayed until the end of the war. In 1942, Bencelis was arrested and sent to Gurs, where he spent a year. In April 1943, he was released and returned to Saint-Saturnin, but never slept at home, fearing his family would get caught in another arrest. In March 1944, the Gorodiscases welcomed a son, Gilbert. In 1945, they returned to Paris. Marguerite immigrated to the United States in 1952 and her parents followed in 1961.