Michael Frankenstein was born in hospital in Landsberg an der Warthe (now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland). His Jewish mother Leonie had been living on a farm in the nearby village of Briesenhorst (now Brzeźno) with Michael’s brother Peter-Uri under a false name since February 1944. She had posed as a bombed-out woman whose papers had been destroyed. Michael was registered with the authorities as Michael Gerhard.
Under threat of her identity being revealed, Leonie Frankenstein had to leave Briesenhorst with her two small sons at the end of 1944. They went to Berlin, where Michael first saw his father Walter Frankenstein, who had gone into hiding separately. The whole family found refuge with a brothel-keeper. After that hiding place was destroyed, they hid in the vacant apartment of a sex worker named Dora until their liberation in early May 1945.
In November 1945 Michael Frankenstein, his mother, and his brother emigrated to Palestine, which was under British mandate at the time.
Michael Frankenstein’s father Walter was not granted entry permission. The family was not reunited until the summer of 1947.