Cornelia Auerbach studied in Breslau, Munich, Jena, and Freiburg, in 1928 becoming the first woman in Germany to gain a doctorate in musicology. She married the composer Hanning Schröder the following year, and their daughter Nele was born in 1934. In 1935 Cornelia Schröder was excluded from the Reich Chamber of Music, which was equivalent to being banned from her profession. She did not find out whether her Jewish origins were the reason.
At the end of 1943, Cornelia Schröder met a couple living underground, Ilse and Werner Rewald, through a cellist friend. The Rewalds were looking for work and a new place to stay. The Schröders gave Werner Rewald employment in their house in Berlin.
In the spring of 1944, Cornelia and Nele Schröder left Berlin for safety reasons, and Hanning Schröder took the Rewalds into their home. Cornelia Schröder moved to Dargun in Mecklenburg, where she worked as an organist and a choir leader in the church. Only the pastor became aware that she was Jewish.
Cornelia Schröder kept in touch with her husband through letters, and sent vegetables to Berlin to support the Rewalds.