He studied electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins, and took a job at RCA, where he worked on the transmission of color TV signals.
Because of his good command of English, he was chosen out of the Army motor pool to become an interpreter. He took part in the pretrial interrogations for the Nuremberg trials, during which he questioned Hermann Göring, Albert Speer, and Joachim von Ribbentrop, among others.
He became a US citizen, was drafted into the Army, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and helped to liberate Dachau.
In 1938 his parents sent him and his brother to England to get them out of harm's way at the hands of the Nazi regime. He eventually moved to the United States and was reunited with his family.