Karl Fiedler Hochmann was born in 1929 in Chernovtsky, Rumania. He was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. He lost his parents and nine brothers (one of which was his twin) in the Holocaust. In 1941, when he was 12 years old, Karl was taken to the Briceni concentration camp. A year later, he was taken to Norway, near one of the major Nazi submarine bases. Because he was gifted in languages, Karl was used as an interpreter.
After the war, with help from relatives in New York, he was able to immigrate to the United States in 1946. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army which brought him to Fort Bliss. When Karl got out of the army, he liked the El Paso desert and decided to stay. He lived in Sunland Park, New Mexico for 18 years before moving to Florida. Shortly before his death in 2003, Karl returned to El Paso.