Rudolf Lachmann-Mosse was born in Berlin in 1913, the middle child of Hans and Felicia Lachmann-Mosse. As their first son, Rudolf was expected to take over the Mosse family’s expansive publishing empire one day, an assumption that chafed him as he grew older. Ultimately, the choice was taken away from him. The Mosses were Jewish, and their newspapers became symbols of the Nazi’s hated “Jewish press.” When Hitler came to power, the Mosses were forced out of Germany and their publishing empire was seized and ultimately dismantled.

Following their exile, Rudolf went to Switzerland with his mother, where he attended the University of Zurich. He ultimately graduated with a Ph.D in economics in 1940, writing his thesis on international nitrogen cartels. After his graduation, he and his mother escaped Europe through unoccupied France, Spain, and Portugal thanks to a series of well placed bribes, and joined the rest of their family in America.

Soon after his arrival, Rudolf enlisted in the American army and declared he did so “because I want to fight Hitler and all he stands for.” He served in the military until the end of the war, spending the bulk of his time in the Pacific theater. 

After he was discharged from the military, Rudolf settled in Arlington, Virginia, where he was an analyst at the US State Department in the Office of Intelligence Research and Analysis. He married Jutta Steinfeld five years later, and the couple had a daughter, Joy. Rudolf passed away in 1955 at the age of 45 after a long battle with cancer.