Fred Voss was born in 1920 in Aachen, Germany. After being forced out of Germany by the Nazis in 1939, he landed in the United States. He worked in the textile and travel industries for more than 60 years. He and his wife Ilse have two children and five grandchildren. In 2011, they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. In 2012, 77 years after being kicked out of German schools by the Nazis, Fred Voss was awarded his high school diploma by Lansing High School in Lansing, NY, where he had spoken for more than 10 years about his childhood experiences.