black is the son of polish jews who were survivors of the holocaust. his mother, ethel "edjya" katz, from białystok, told of narrowly escaping death during the holocaust by escaping a boxcar en route to the treblinka extermination camp as a 13-year old in august 1943. after escaping, she was shot by militiamen then rescued by a polish jewish fighter whom she later married. black's father described escaping his own murder by fleeing to the woods from a long march to an isolated "shooting pit" and subsequently fighting the nazis as a betar partisan. the pair had survived world war ii by hiding in the forests of poland for two years, emerging only after the end of the conflict and emigrating to the united states.