Micha Shagrir was born in
Linz, Austria as Josef Michael Schwager. (Among other films, Shagrir made a documentary
Linz. Bischofstrasse 7 about the street in Linz where his family lived.) His father Karl Schwager emigrated to
Mandatory Palestine in 1921, where he lived in kibbutz
Heftziba and where he met Micha Shagrir's mother, Vally (Yehudit). She already had a son Chaim, from her recently deceased husband Georg Grünwald. They returned to Austria in 1932 or 1933, but immediately after the Nazi's
Anschluss, in April 1938 they emigrated to Palestine. At first they lived in Heftziba, later in
Tel Aviv and
Holon. Later Micha lived in other places. In 1949 the family changed their surname to Shagrir (which means "ambassador" in Hebrew). The father took the name Hanan, and the mother Yehudit Micha Shagrir graduated from the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. ==Family==