Engaged in anti-Nazi activities in France, and tortured for information by the Gestapo in Lyon where worked Klaus Barbie. He was shot and his body burnt.
He and his older brother Lucien, a chemical engineer, co-founded during the Occupation, the food cooperative Croque-Fruits where many artists in Marseille worked. They came to Marseille invited by Léo Sauvage.
Lucien Itkine born 27 September 1905 in Paris was a Résistant and died in Mauthausen concentration camp on 25 February 1945.
Leader of an agit-prop theater group whose members included Francis Lemarque and Yves Deniaud. Sylvain was close to the Octobre group of the Prévert brothers and worked in legit theater in Paris.