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Gutkin Leivik (1908)

Personal data
SurnameGutkin
NameLeivik
Birth year1908
Birth month12
Birth day19
Birth placeRiga
SexM

Gutkin Leivik (b. 19 December 1908, Riga – ?) — physician, International Brigade volunteer.

Leivik Gutkin was the son of Abram Gutkin. Lived at 21–10b Lačplēša Street, Riga. From 1930 to 1934, he studied medicine at universities in Prague and Turin. In 1934–35, he served in the Latvian Army, then worked as a physician in Riga.

In December 1936, Gutkin joined the Spanish Civil War as a member of the International Brigades, serving until February 1939 in the 283rd International Brigade on the central front, and later in the 4th Valencian Battalion. From spring 1939 to August 1940, he was interned in Algerian labor camps for Spanish refugees, including Camp Morand near Boghari. During this time, he received permission from Latvian authorities to return to Latvia.

In March 1940, he was stripped of Latvian citizenship for overstaying his foreign passport (per Article 8, Paragraph 2). He was later imprisoned in a concentration camp in France until 1941, and in 1943 was interned in German camps in North Africa and in an Algerian prison.

After World War II, Leivik Gutkin returned to Riga, where he worked as a physician in a local clinic.