Born in 1919. His parents were the Yiddish actors Chana Lerner and David Zeiderman. He was raised in Berlin, Germany by family. He completed the gymnasium and studied as a medical doctor, but due to the Hitler regime he had to interrupt his studies, and together with his parents went away to Poland, to Warsaw, where they were then put into the ghetto He had never thought about acting in theatre, but the changed living conditions had also moreover gefirt.

Jonas Turkow writes about this:

"Suddenly in the ghetto he had