Marcel Marceau was born into a Jewish household in Strasbourg, France. Charles Mangel, his father, was a kosher butcher from Bedzin, Poland. His mother, Anne Werzberg, was born in Yabluniv, Ukraine. He is a relative of Israeli singer Yardena Arazi through his mother's family. When Marcel was six years old, his father died when hit by a tramway car. At the time of the incident, Mr. Mangel was taking home meat from the market for preparation later that day. The death of his father caused Marcel to be brought up by his single mother, who worked as a dressmaker. She sent him to school even though she could have kept him at home to help her raise her other five children. In 1922, at the age of 18, he started working as a stilt walker with the name "Le Petit Marcel" at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Three years later, he created the role of "The Little Marcel" at another Paris theater, this time called the Theatre Mogador. In 1930, he moved to London where he continued to play roles at the Mogador Theater. In 1936, he returned to Paris where he has lived ever since. During World War II, he worked for the French government agency that organized entertainments for soldiers in prison camps. After the war, he opened his own theater company with two friends.