Leaving Vienna

In March 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria (an event known as the Anschluss), subjecting Austrian Jews like Beila and Wolf Griffel and their young daughter Herta to antisemitic laws that put both their property and their lives at risk. After witnessing a parade of Nazis, a confused Herta asked her mother what was happening. “It is bad,” Herta remembers Beila saying, “It’s very bad.”

Herta’s father, Wolf, and other Jewish men endured forced labor daily. Beila tried to maintain the family’s grocery store but the Nazi regime soon forced Jews like the Griffels to close their businesses. In November 1939, Wolf died from illness.

As Nazi persecutions worsened, Beila Griffel decided she needed to get her daughter to safety. In November 1940, she began to plan, focusing her efforts on the German Jewish Children’s Aid organization in the United States.

Immigration to the United States was not simple. The waiting list for an immigration visa was long, and Beila needed to collect many legal documents to verify Herta’s identity. The German Jewish Children’s Aid was able to help children using a special corporate financial affidavit, so Beila did not need to find an American sponsor for Herta.

After Herta received her immigration visa, Beila had to say goodbye to her daughter. Herta sailed from Lisbon aboard the SS Excambion in December 1940. She was one of nine children traveling with a chaperone. All the children were leaving their parents behind.

Arrival in America

Herta arrived in New York on December 23, 1940. Her social worker, Rose Beser, accompanied her to Baltimore, where the German Jewish Children’s Aid placed her with a foster family, the Baers. Clara and Joseph Baer had three biological children and welcomed Herta into their house with open arms. Herta was comforted when they greeted her in Yiddish, a language she understood.

Beila sent a letter of thanks to Rose Beser: “I wept with joy and thank our Almighty for having sent me so kind people who take such good care of my orphan child Herta.”

While living with the Baers, Herta exchanged letters with her mother, who hoped to reunite with her daughter in America. Beila’s letters stopped arriving in 1941.

The Friedlander Family

Herta lived with the Baers for six months. After Mrs. Baer gave birth to her fourth child, Herta’s social worker decided to place her in another Jewish home. The young girl was devastated to leave the family that had given her such a warm welcome to America.

In July 1941, Herta went to live with Harry and Mary Friedlander and their ten-year-old daughter Beverly. After meeting Beverly, who was a few years older, Herta became self-conscious of her Austrian clothing and braids, which suddenly seemed too foreign for an American girl. Mary got Herta a haircut and bought her new clothes as she grew out of her European ones.

Herta adjusted to life in the United States and did well in school, but the pain of leaving her mother remained. She would often hear people refer to how lucky she was, but that “luck” made Herta feel sad and guilty. Many memories of childhood in Vienna began to fade.

A Gift from Her Mother

As she entered adulthood, Herta resigned herself to the idea that she might never know very much about her biological family. In 1963, Herta discovered one of her mother’s cousins, Adela Dula, who was living in London.

For years after the war, Adela had tried unsuccessfully to locate Herta until she met an American tourist who had recently read a Baltimore Sun article about Herta. Adela reached out to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society organization (HIAS), who connected them in 1963.

When they finally met, Adela shared their family history and gave Herta an unopened package. It was from Herta’s mother, Beila. Before Beila was deported to her death, she sent Adela a box of valuables intended for Herta. The box included Herta’s grandmother’s candlesticks, Beila’s earrings and diamond ring, Wolf’s pocket watch, and a tablecloth that Beila embroidered. Herta cherished her mother’s final gift.

Later Years

Herta and her husband Arthur “Otts” Baitch have three children and several grandchildren.

Until 2004, Herta did not know the details of her mother’s fate. Herta finally learned through Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, that Beila was deported from Vienna to the Maly Trostinets concentration camp on September 14, 1942. She died four days later.

Reflecting on her experiences, Herta wrote in her 2009 memoir, “I will always be grateful that I have been privileged to live the life for which my mother so obviously prayed.”