About: Shondor Birns

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Alex Birns was born Alexander Birnstein in 1907 in the town of Lemes in a section of Austria-Hungary that went to Czechoslovakia under the Versailles treaty. His parents were Herman and Illon Birnstein. Youngest of three children, he was brought to New York at the age of one month. From New York City, the family moved to Cleveland, settling in the lower Woodland Avenue district.

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rdfs:label	Shondor Birns
rdfs:comment	Alex Birns was born Alexander Birnstein in 1907 in the town of Lemes in a section of Austria-Hungary that went to Czechoslovakia under the Versailles treaty. His parents were Herman and Illon Birnstein. Youngest of three children, he was brought to New York at the age of one month. From New York City, the family moved to Cleveland, settling in the lower Woodland Avenue district.
dcterms:subject	Jewish Mobsters Associates Cleveland Crime Family Murdered Mobsters
abstract	Alex Birns was born Alexander Birnstein in 1907 in the town of Lemes in a section of Austria-Hungary that went to Czechoslovakia under the Versailles treaty. His parents were Herman and Illon Birnstein. Youngest of three children, he was brought to New York at the age of one month. From New York City, the family moved to Cleveland, settling in the lower Woodland Avenue district. Like many immigrant families, the Birnsteins Americanized their surname to Birns. Alexander's name was abbreviated to an English translation of Zander, but the Italian and Jewish neighbors took to calling the boy "Shondor" (as the Hungarian equivalent of "Alexander" is "Sándor", pronounced roughly as most Americans would pronounce "Shondor") and the name stuck. Like most families, the Birns family struggled to earn a living in the New World. Like many immigrants during Prohibition, they turned to bootlegging, taking in a small still from Cleveland Mafia boss Joseph Lonardo to supplement their income and better provide for their children. In November 1920, Birns' mother was tending to the 10-gallon still in their apartment, when a faulty gas connection caused an explosion. Her clothing caught fire and was engulfed in flames. She ran outside screaming, where a passing motorist helped extinguish the flames and drove her to the hospital. Horribly burned over 75% of her body, she died the next morning. Birns was 13 at the time of his mother's death. Birns was sheltered for a time in the old Jewish orphanage. He grew up, quickly taking a job as a newspaper boy during the tough Newspaper circulation wars. Later on, he lived with his grandmother. As a student, Birns excelled at athletics, especially baseball and swimming. Birns dropped out of school after 10th grade in 1922, enlisting in the United States Navy in 1923, but being discharged six months later because he was underage.

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