Manfred was born on September 8, 1922, in Berlin where he lived with his parents and four siblings in the predominantly Jewish section of the city. The family lived in poverty in three little rooms not far from the Beck house at Dragoner Strasse 43. Manfred’s father was a barber and his mother Jenny, a former secretary, took care of the family. She often had to find other sources of food to supplement the family’s insufficient Jewish food ration cards.