Franz R. Brotzen, my friend's grandfather, was a German Jew who fled Germany at age 17 in 1933. He stayed in Brazil for eight years before emigrating to the United States. Once there, in 1941 he was drafted into the US Army. Going to OCS, he was commissioned as a military intelligence officer and sent to teach other intelligence officers German. Just as the war in Europe was winding down, Brotzen was sent to the Eastern Front. His mission was to turn the Nazi spy network there into an American spy network against the Russians. He interrogated many Wermacht intelligence officers, using everything they knew about the Soviets to help the US. After his stint in the military, he became a well-known professor, catapulting Rice University to the national stage. He passed away on May 25, 2010, at age 94.
