The Jewish twin sisters Marianne and Annelies Bernstein were born in Königsberg. Their father, part-owner of a bank, committed suicide in 1933 when he was pushed out of the business by his non-Jewish partners.
In the hope of emigrating, the 18-year-olds sisters moved to Berlin in 1940. Annelies Bernstein trained as a tailor; her blind sister Marianne learned brushmaking at Otto Weidt’s workshop.
When their mother was deported in 1942, Marianne and Anneliese Bernstein decided to go underground. At Otto Weidt’s request, Hedwig Porschütz took the sisters into her apartment near Alexanderplatz in January 1943. The twins left these quarters in the summer of 1943, when a Jewish couple hiding in the same building were arrested. Hedwig Porschütz continued to provide them with food.
From then on, they were often forced to sleep in parks or station buildings. They eventually left Berlin and found work and shelter on various farms near Breslau. Marianne and Anneliese Bernstein emigrated to the United States in the spring of 1946. Marianne Wodrig, as she was called after her marriage, died in 1987.