Alexander Ginzburg was born on October 19, 1918 in Yekaterinoslav (now the Dnieper) into a Jewish family. Father, Aron Samoilovich Ginzburg, was an economist; mother, Feiga (Fanny, Faina) Borisovna Veksler, worked at the conservatory. Grandfather was a pediatrician; uncle - literary critic Lev Samoilovich Ginzburg (1879-1933). The family lived in house number 74 on Kazachya Street, built in 1911 by the residents themselves (the Yekaterinoslav House-Building Society, the first housing cooperative in the city). The younger brother is cameraman Valery Ginzburg.