Henry Primakoff was born in 1914 in Odesa, Russian Empire. His mother came from a large Jewish family. Primakoff's father was Greek Orthodox born in Kyiv and died in 1919 due to injuries during World War I. His mother and his grandparents decided to escape from Russia to the United States, through Romania and later Germany, where they finally took a steamship. They settled in New York City in 1922