During World War II, Helene Lohse lived with her mother Lucie Gottberg in Berlin. Her Jewish fiancé Manfred Alexander was deported to Minsk on November 14, 1941; with the aid of a German railroad employee, however, he managed to escape back to Berlin at the end of 1941. He hid in the home of his friend Werner von Biel. With the latter’s help, Lucie Gottberg, her daughter, and Manfred Alexander escaped to Luxembourg at the end of January 1942. The couple had married shortly before that, on January 3, in a Berlin synagogue. After months in transit through Belgium and France, they eventually reached Switzerland in August 1942, aided by escape helpers. After the war Helene and Manfred Alexander emigrated to the USA, where they changed their first names to Helen and Fred.