Albert Sidney Fleischman was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 16, 1920, but grew up in San Diego, California.

In his autobiography only some of his father's activities are described in those years when the family lived in New York.

Fleischman's father, originally named Rivven, anglicized to Reuben, was born in a shabby Ukrainian village named Olik. He never knew the exact day and year of his birth, as the family, in its poverty, had no calendars. To escape service in the Russian army, a wretched life of hazings and beatings, Rivven and his father paid Ukrainian smugglers to get them out of the country.

They took an immigrant ship out of Hamburg bound for New York. Most of the male Fleischmans were either tailors or pressmen.

Sid himself was the first in many generations who could not baste a hem. Reuben quickly adopted the...