Because he was a Jew, Manfred Alexander had to perform forced labor from the summer of 1940, clearing bomb-damaged buildings in the “Construction Staff Speer.” Along with his parents and an aunt, the 21-year-old was deported to Minsk on November 14, 1941; his relatives were murdered. With the aid of a German railroad employee, Alexander managed to board a train taking wounded soldiers back to the German Reich, and made his way to Berlin.
There, he turned to his non-Jewish friend Werner von Biel, who was immediately prepared to take him into his family home—although the apartment was opposite a police station and Manfred Alexander was a wanted man. After about a month, at the end of January 1942, Alexander was able to escape to occupied Luxembourg with his wife Helene and her mother, Lucie Gottberg. Helped by a smuggler, the moved on to Belgium and France. After months on the run, thanks to another helper and the payment of a considerable sum of money, they crossed the Swiss border in August 1942. After the war the Alexanders emigrated to the United States, where they changed their first names to Fred and Helen.