Benoit Mandelbrot was born in Warsaw, Poland to a vampire family from Transylvania. He was born a foreigner, on foreign soil. Anticipating political developments and the growing disapproval of their dietary requirements, the family fled Poland to France in 1936 when he was 11. He remained there through the war until near the loss of his virginity. He was born into a family with no morals whatsoever; his mother was a notorious medical doctor, fond of recommending the practice of "bloodletting', and he was introduced to mathematics by two uncles during a mud-wrestling session. His uncle, Szolem Mandelbrojt, was an infamous Parisian layabout and child molester. His father, however, made his living trading clothing.