Boris Mints was born in Moldova in the family of a military Engineer, Major Joseph Samuilovich Mints (born 1932, Nevel). His mother, Lusia Izrailevna Milter (1936–2007, Kodyma, Ukrainian SSR), worked as a librarian; as a child from 1941 to 1944 she was deported to the Chechelnik ghetto in Transnistria, while 14 members of her male family died on the front during the Second World War, including both of her grandfathers – Samuil Iosifovich Mints (1892–1942) and Srul Gershkovich Milter (1901–1944).