Early Life
Anthony Mazzocchi was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, on June 13, 1926, to Joseph and Angelina (Lamardo) Mazzocchi. His father was a garment worker and union member. The family was very poor, and Mazzocchi slept in the same bed with two of his siblings. His mother died of cancer when Mazzocchi was six years old, and the family lost their home because of the cost of medical care.
His future politics were shaped at an early age. His two sisters and a closeted gay uncle were all communists. In 1949, Mazzocchi supported Vito Marcantonio in his bid to become Mayor of New York City. Both factors played a major role in influencing Mazzocchi's radically progressive political views.
Mazzocchi dropped out of high school in the ninth grade when he was 16 years old. Lying about his age, he enlisted in the United States Army, and fought in Europe during World War II as an anti-aircraft gunner. He saw combat in three major campaigns, most notably the Battle of the Bulge, and helped liberate Buchenwald concentration camp.
After his discharge in 1946, Mazzocchi got a job as an autoworker for Ford Motor Company in Edgewater, New Jersey. Having read extensively while in the Army, he went back to school and graduated from vocational-technical school while working as a construction worker and steelworker in Brooklyn. In 1950, he took a job at a Helena Rubenstein cosmetics factory in Roslyn, New York.
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