I was born Alexander Radzinski in 1934 in Warsaw. Our family was well-to-do, and we lived in Praga, a suburb on the other side of the Vistula River. My father, Yitzchok, and mother, Gittel, and my little sister, Frieda (Zosha), and I lived a happy life. When I was five years old, in 1939, the war broke out.

My father owned a furniture factory, warehouse, and store. My family was traditional, and I remember going to shul on Shabbos. We spoke Polish at home, but my parents spoke Yiddish to each other and I picked up some of it. My mother was an educated woman and taught Polish subjects in Janush Korshak’s Jewish school in Warsaw.