Fred (Godfrey) Kahn was born on May 6, 1913 in Giessen, Germany. In 1933, he and his brother, Rudy, were forced to defend themselves against members of the Hitler Youth. After injuring one of them, the brothers were warned of an impending arrest, so they fled on bicycles on the night of Fred’s 20th birthday. They spent the next four years living as refugees and travelling illegally through Austria, Switzerland, France, and Spain. Fred worked many jobs, gaining skills, especially in auto mechanics and engine repair.
For a time, Fred and Rudy fought with the Social Democrats in the Spanish Revolution against France, who was aligned with Hitler and Mussolini. While working in a shipyard in France in 1937, Fred and Rudy obtained legal papers enabling them to leave on a Spanish ship filled with war orphan refugees bound for Mexico. The brothers disembarked in Havana, Cuba and then immigrated to the United States through Miami, where they arrived on July 4, 1937. From there, they moved to New York to rejoin the rest of their family. Fred and Rudy moved to San Antonio in 1938. Fred then joined the United States Air Force in 1942, serving first at Duncan Field and then in the Pacific.
A crippled right hand, which he had injured while working in France and later re-injured fighting in Spain, brought him to Beaumont Hospital in El Paso for a year of reconstructive surgeries. In 1945, Fred was invited to work for the United States Intelligence because of his language abilities and background with mechanics and blueprints. For a time, he worked as a translator for Werner von Braun and other German rocket scientists who were brought to the U.S. after the war. Eventually, Fred became a business owner in El Paso as a retail distributor of sewing machines, home appliances, and tires. He married Faye Sheiness in 1942. They were married for 57 years and had four children. Fred died on January 12, 2000.