Karl Maramorosch may be best known for his accomplishments as a top scientist, but the story of how he became such a success has never been told-until now.

Born in Vienna in 1915, his family moved to Poland, and he fled with his wife, Irene, to Romania in September 1939.

They spent four years in Polish refugee camps and were in Soviet-occupied Romania until October 1946, before coming to the United States in January 1947 on an immigration visa.

But they did not arrive unscathed: Maramorosch's father died in the gas chamber in Belzec in 1942, and his mother also died...