Rudolph Valsonok was born in Vilnius on October 24, 1889. He studied law in Vilnius, Warsaw, and Cracow, and during his younger days, he became interested in investigative journalism. After his studies in 1920-1923, he worked in the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1923, when Klaipėda (Ger. Memel) became a part of newly independent Lithuania, young R. Valsonok moved to the coastal city. He worked as a publicist in local newspapers, however, he also spent a lot of time researching the history and culture of Klaipėda region and even published two monographs on this topic, dedicating one book to the problem of Klaipėda (The Problem of Klaipėda, 1932), in which he justified the legal basis for Klaipėda belonging to Lithuania. In 1939, when Nazi Germany occupied the region of Klaipėda, R. Valsonok moved to Lithuania, and in 1941 he was imprisoned in Kaunas ghetto and later was sent to Dachau. He managed to survive the Second World War, however, he died just one year later in the displaced persons’ camp in Landsberg.