Rudi Strauß was born in Bad Kissingen on January 3, 1923 as the second child of the wholesale wine merchant Max Strauß and his wife Johanna, née Hamburger. His father came from a cattle dealers’ family in Geroda, whereas his mother’s ancestors were a long-established Kissingen butchers’ family. Both of them had married in Munich in 1911. Their first daughter Nelly was born there. In June 1919, the family moved from Munich to Bad Kissingen into Kurhausstrasse. Since March 1929, they lived with Stumpf in Salinenstrasse 29.

In the first years of the Nazi dictatorship, his parents stayed in Germany because in those days they didn’t believe that they were earnestly in danger there. That it was the younger Jews who were more capable of summoning the strength and recognizing the imminent danger is confirmed by Rudi Strauß, who emigrated as a 15-year-old to America with his parents. “Yes. We were a bit different from our parents. Our parents were convinced: “That will ebb away. It is just a wave at the moment. We haven’t done anything wrong. We fought for the king and our fatherland. We have done our duty. Most of the people here in Bad Kissingen will endorse that. They will never allow that the National Socialists, the SS will continue interfering”. We children thought a bit differently of that: “Well, this is Germany here. We must come to terms with the fact that sooner or later we will have to leave the country… I expected it, just like my schoolmates”. (Information given in person by Dr. Rudi Strauß, conversation with H.J. Beck on August 27, 1985).

Little is known about Rudi Strauß’ life in the United States. He married Ruth Kluger. They had one child. He died in 1996 at the age of 73.