Editing Serge Gainsbourg (section)

=== 1928–1956: Early years ===
Serge Gainsbourg was born in Paris on 2 April 1928. He was the son of [[Russian-Jewish]]<ref name="Forward" /> immigrants, Joseph and Olga{{efn|Short version: Olia, his mother's baptist name was Olga, as written on [[:Image:Serge Gainsbourg Grave.jpg|Gainsbourg's grave]]}} Ginsburg,<ref name="Salon">{{cite web |first=Sylvie|last=Simmons|title=Tolstoy's granddaughter. Dali's sleek couch. How Serge Gainsbourg became Serge Gainsbourg |date=6 June 2015 |url=https://www.salon.com/2015/06/05/tolstoys_granddaughter_dalis_sleek_couch_how_serge_gainsbourg_became_serge_gainsbourg/ |website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203012942/https://www.salon.com/2015/06/05/tolstoys_granddaughter_dalis_sleek_couch_how_serge_gainsbourg_became_serge_gainsbourg/ |archive-date=3 December 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> who fled to Paris via [[Istanbul]] after the 1917 [[Russian Revolution]].<ref name="Forward">{{cite web |last1=Ivry |first1=Benjamin |title=The Man With the Yellow Star: The Jewish Life of Serge Gainsbourg |url=https://forward.com/culture/14621/the-man-with-the-yellow-star-02882/ |website=[[The Forward]] |access-date=3 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310012424/https://forward.com/culture/14621/the-man-with-the-yellow-star-02882/ |archive-date=10 March 2021 |date=26 November 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Joseph met Olga during his stay in [[Crimea]], and they later married. Olga was a singer born in Crimea under the [[Russian Empire]], and Joseph was a classically trained pianist who performed primarily at cabarets and casinos. Joseph taught Serge and his twin sister Liliane to play the piano.<ref name="vanityfair.com" />

Gainsbourg's childhood was profoundly affected by the [[German military administration in occupied France during World War II|occupation of France]] by Germany during [[World War II]]. The identifying [[yellow badge|yellow star]] that Jews were required to wear haunted Gainsbourg; in later years he was able to transmute this memory into creative inspiration.<ref name="Forward" /> During the occupation, the Ginsburg family fled from Paris to [[Limoges]] using forged documents. At the time, Limoges was part of [[zone libre]], an area of France governed by the [[Vichy government|Vichy regime]] that was not occupied by Germany, but it became unsafe for Jews after Germany eventually [[Case Anton|occupied]] the area in 1942.<ref name="vanityfair.com" />

Serge attended [[Lycée Condorcet]] in Paris, but dropped out before completing his ''[[Baccalauréat]]''.<ref name="Salon" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/13/anger-over-plan-to-name-metro-station-after-misogynist-serge-gainsbourg|title=Anger over plan to name Métro station after 'misogynist' Serge Gainsbourg|work=the guardian|date=13 December 2023 |last1=Chrisafis |first1=Angelique }}</ref> In 1945, Gainsbourg's father enrolled him in [[Beaux-Arts de Paris]], a prestigious art school.<ref name="Salon" /> Serge later transferred to the Académie de Montmartre, where his professors included the likes of [[André Lhote]] and [[Fernand Léger]].<ref name="RTL">{{cite web |last1=Giuliani |first1=Morgane |date=2 March 2016 |title=Serge Gainsbourg : 9 lieux à visiter à Paris pour mieux connaître le chanteur |url=https://www.rtl.fr/culture/musique/serge-gainsbourg-9-lieux-a-visiter-a-paris-pour-mieux-connaitre-le-chanteur-7782155235 |publisher=[[RTL (French radio)|RTL]] |access-date=22 January 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128205534/https://www.rtl.fr/culture/musique/serge-gainsbourg-9-lieux-a-visiter-a-paris-pour-mieux-connaitre-le-chanteur-7782155235 |archive-date=28 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Searle |first1=Adrian |title=Fernand Léger: New Times, New Pleasures review – humanity in a machine age |date=25 November 2018 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/nov/25/fernand-leger-new-times-new-pleasures-tate-liverpool-adrian-searle |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=22 January 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218072649/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/nov/25/fernand-leger-new-times-new-pleasures-tate-liverpool-adrian-searle |archive-date=18 December 2020}}</ref> There, Gainsbourg met his first wife, Elisabeth "Lize" Levitsky, the daughter of [[Russian aristocracy|Russian aristocrat]]s and a part-time model.<ref name="Salon" /> Serge and Lize were married on November 3, 1951, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1957.<ref name="Salon" />

In 1948, Serge was conscripted by the military for twelve months of service in [[Courbevoie]]. He never saw action, spending his time playing dirty songs on guitar, visiting prostitutes, and drinking. Serge later claimed that the military service turned him into an alcoholic.<ref name="Salon" /> Gainsbourg obtained work teaching music and painting at a school in [[Le Mesnil-le-Roi]], just outside of Paris. The school was founded under the auspices of local rabbis to serve the orphaned children of murdered deportees. Here, Gainsbourg heard accounts of Nazi Germany's acts of persecution and genocide, and these stories inspired his songwriting several decades later.<ref name="Forward" />