Ariadna Scriabina

For conspiracy reasons, Sarah-Ariadna took a nickname – Régine. She came up with an oath and a ceremony carried out when joining Armée Juive, which over the years was followed by almost 2000 people.

After the war, Dovid Knut acted as editor of Bulletin du Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine and for a while lived in the house where he had previously published Affirmation. Archives of Affirmation, the pre-war poems of Knut, and the unfinished novel of his wife had been lost. In 1947, he published the book on "The history of the Jewish Resistance in France, 1940–1944" (French: Contribution a L'Histoire de la Resistance Juive en France 1940–1944), and in 1949 his "Selected Poems". In 1948, he married the 17-year-old actress Virginia Sharovskaya. Jewish through one of her parents, she converted to Judaism to become Leah Knut. In October 1949 they emigrated to Israel, where Knut died in 1955 from a brain tumour.

Betty Knut was involved with the French resistance and later became a war correspondent. She had a rank of lieutenant in the U.S. Army and received the Silver Star personally from George S. Patton, as well as the French Croix de Guerre. When crossing the Rhine, her jeep hit a landmine, leaving Betty with a serious shrapnel wound to the head. She recovered, but suffered from headaches for the rest of her life. She published a popular book La Ronde de Mouche on her military experiences. In the US she married a demobilized American soldier, a Jew. They had three children. After the war she became an active member of the Lehi (Stern Gang), undertaking special operations for the militant group and she became famous after being imprisoned in 1947 for planting explosives on British ships which had been trying to prevent Jewish immigrants from travelling to Mandatory Palestine. After her release from prison, she settled at the age of 23 in Beersheba in Southern Israel, where she opened a nightclub, before her early death at the age of 38 – the same age her mother and grandmother had died.

By early 1944 Armée Juive was strong enough to form a separate Jewish Legion to help the Allied forces in the liberation of France. For this purpose, they met with British representatives in Marseilles and then in Paris. However, when they sent two representatives to London, they were caught by Gestapo on the way to the Paris airport. Shortly thereafter, Gestapo arrested 25 activists of Armée Juive following the lead of their agent.

On 22 July 1944, Ariadna had an appointment regarding the promotion of a new member of Armée Juive. She and her companion Raul Leon were ambushed by two milice agents, one of whom retreated for reinforcement while the other held the suspects at gunpoint. While waiting, Leon grabbed an empty bottle and threw it at the agent. The agent instinctively fired his machine gun in response, killing Ariadna on the spot. Leon managed to escape, despite being wounded in both legs, and later provided a detailed account of the event.

On 22 May 1943 she gave birth to Joseph, and in November–December sent Eli, Tatiana-Miriam and Joseph to Switzerland.

Joseph (born 22 May 1943) lived with Dovid Knut in Israel, where he served in the special forces. He became disabled after inadvertently shooting himself in the head. He demobilized and studied French literature at Tel Aviv University. He published a book of memoirs about his father and his own collection of poems in Hebrew.

Toulouse was in the so-called "free zone", which saw no battles and occupation forces till November 1942, but had local "milice" set by the Vichy regime. The attitude toward Jews was so tense that Knuts stopped speaking Russian and used French even with their children. Most Jews tried to flee through Marseilles to South America; Knuts tried too, but failed. Life was poor and hard, and they took any jobs available.

In early 1942, Dovid and Ariadna published a brochure titled "What to do?" (French: Que faire?) on the problems of Jews in World War II, where they argued the need for a Jewish underground organization. Dovid read the brochure to several Zionists in Toulouse, but only Abraham Polonski agreed with him while others found the idea of an underground fighting suicidal. Meanwhile, Polonski had an experience of creating an underground Jewish organization during the Civil War in Russia. He got arrested, but managed to escape through Germany and Belgium to Toulouse. There he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Toulouse and later opened his own thriving business. Despite the objections of Zionists, Knuts, Polonski and his wife formed an organization, which was first named Bnei David ("descendants of David") and later Armée Juive ("Jewish army").

In November 1942, police arrested Arnold Mandel, a member of Armée Juive who was a friend of Knuts back from Paris. Mandel gave the name and address of Knut, but the underground learned about it through their informants, and when the police raided the flat they found no criminal evidence. Yet Knut fell under suspicion and was sent to Switzerland. Being absorbed into underground activities, Ariadna refused to join him, despite being pregnant.

In early 1939, Dovid and Ariadna managed to start publication of a newspaper Affirmation that aimed at awakening the national consciousness of the Jews. Dovid acted not only as an editor, but as a journalist. The appearance of the newspaper was an important event for the Jews of Paris and in August 1939, Knuts were invited to the XXI World Zionist Congress in Geneva.

A week after the Congress, the Second World War started. Knut was mobilized to the French Army on the first day of the war, 1 September 1939, and the newspaper had to close. He served in Paris, and on 30 March 1940 he and Ariadna finally registered their marriage. A few days later, Ariadna converted to Judaism and took the name Sarah. She then demanded all friends to call her only by the new name.

Eli (born 22 June 1935) moved to Israel in 1945, graduated from the Naval College in Haifa, and became a sailor. After demobilization, he continued sailing with the merchant navy until 1960, and then taught guitar in Rosh Pinna. He is now retired.

They started dating in late 1934, 10 years after their first acquaintance. Although Ariadna ran away from Méjean, he remained friendly with Knut until at least late 1936. Ariadna and Méjean officially divorced only in 1937, whereas Knut parted with his first wife in 1933.

Pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky visited Paris in 1928 with his wife Elena, the beloved step-sister of Ariadna. After a fight with Vladimir, Elena sent him to Russia and remained in Paris, staying close with Ariadna for years.

Later Ariadna gave birth to two daughters, Tatiana-Miriam (3 February 1925) and Gilbert-Elizabeth (Betty; 1926). Soon after birth of Betty, Ariadna left Lazarus, taking both daughters with her.

In early 1924 she married the French composer Daniel Lazarus. She surprised him by her extraordinary looseness, sometimes bordering arrogance. She smoked a lot, drank vodka with no hesitation, and was always hungry – a consequence of the difficult years in Russia – although she remained skinny through her whole life, weighing about 47 kg. As before, she ignored manners and bystanders – this all attracted Lazarus, who felt her dominance even though he was seven years older and was wounded in battles of World War I. He also adored Scriabin, and thus his daughter. He conquered her heart by setting to music three of her poems; however, his relatives did not approve of his choice, calling Ariadna "gypsy."

Tatiana-Miriam married the composer and pianist Robert Cornman (1924–2008). She wrote a book in French about her parents, which was first translated into Russian and published in Russia. It is entitled in French: "Et c'est ma soif que j'aime", also translated into German as "Meine Liebe gilt meinem Durst". Tatiana-Miriam tried in this book to soften the image of Ariadna.

Little is known about Ariadna's first years in Europe. As most other immigrants, she needed money for living. She enrolled to the philological faculty in Sorbonne, but was not much interested in the lectures. Around 1923 she entered the Russian poet club, which was also attended by her future husband, Dovid Knut.

In January 1922, her college was closed down, and in March her mother died after a long period of depression. She was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery, next to her husband. The sisters had to vacate their Moscow flat which was to become the Scriabin's museum. They left Russia for Europe – Maria went to relatives in Belgium and Ariadna to her uncle, Boris de Schloezer, in Paris.

The Soviet government decided to organize Scriabin's museum in his Moscow house, and Schletzer was asked to assist in this matter. While she was away, in June 1919, Julian drowned in the Dnieper River. Since then, Ariadna developed a fear of deep water for life.

Schletzer gradually managed to collect some money for the family and focused on raising Julian, whom she saw as the successor of Alexander Scriabin. Two revolutions in 1917 again undermined the barely established family life. In 1918, famine spread through Moscow, and Schletzer took the children to Kiev, located in a better-fed Ukraine.

On 14 April 1915 Scriabin died of sepsis (blood infection), leaving the family without the source of income. Thanks to the efforts of family friends, the legal wife of Scriabin, Vera, accepted the status of Ariadna, Marina and Julian as Scriabin's children. As a result, they were allowed to carry his name.

In Moscow, Ariadna was baptized in the Orthodox rite, and in November 1912 her sister Marina was born.

Scriabin had long thought of returning to Russia. However, his reputation was spoiled by his scandalous character and dubious family situation, and thus the return was delayed to February 1910.

In late January 1906, Scriabin moved his new family to Geneva, and in the fall to Amsterdam. He and his wife went to a concert tour in Belgium, United States and Paris, while Ariadna was watched by Schletzer's aunts, Henriette and Alina Boti. In the summer of 1907, Schletzer brought Ariadna in the Swiss village of Beatenberg, where she was soon joined by Scriabin. In September, the family moved to Lausanne, where their next child Julian was born in a few months.

Ariadna Aleksandrovna Scriabina (Russian: Ариадна Александровна Скрябина; also Sarah Knut, née Ariadna Alexandrovna Schletzer, pseudonym Régine; 26 October 1905 – 22 July 1944) was a Russian poet and activist of the French Resistance, who co-founded the Zionist resistance group Armée Juive. She was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre and Médaille de la Résistance.

It was an unstable period for Scriabin, who had been moving around Europe for several years. In July 1905, his eldest daughter Rima died in Switzerland, and the birth of Ariadna finalized his separation with a legitimate wife. In December, he broke his longstanding relations with Belyayev's publishing house, which halved their fees shortly after the death of the founder, Mitrofan Belyayev. As a result, Scriabin lost his source of income for a year, until the new owners reconsidered their offer.

Alexander Scriabin had seven children; four from the first marriage to Vera Ivanovna Scriabina: Rima (1898–1905), Elena (1900–1990), Maria (1901–1989) and Lev (1902–1910), and three from the relationship with Tatyana Fyodorovna Schletzer: Ariadna, Julian and Marina. By 1910, Scriabin lived with Schletzer; although he was formally married to Vera Scriabina, they did not meet even at the funeral of their son Lev.