He was born in Vienna in 1920; his father, Ernst Klaar, was an assimilated Jewish banker.
He fought during World War II for the British Army and worked as a news editor for many years, including for Axel Springer AG.
[4] The Klaars were an upper-class family, and George said that they led easy lives until the war.
It also tells of his escape to Ireland where he married Lisl Beck, and subsequent enlistment in the British Army, first in the Pioneer Corps and then in the Royal Artillery.
In Berlin Days (1989) he recounts his work at the denazification bureaucracy, where he became highly skilled in identifying lies and omissions in application forms.