Miriam Fernbach grew up in the Eifel region; her parents were Jewish. In November 1939 her older sister escaped to Palestine. The Fernbachs moved to Berlin, where they went underground at the beginning of 1943. The family had to separate, however. Miriam went to stay in Berlin-Kaulsdorf with Erich Gläser, an SD man and pig breeder, and his wife Maria. The Fernbachs paid a lot of money every month for her accommodation. Over time, thirteen-year-old Miriam had to do more and more work there. She was also unable to seek protection from the heavy air raids in a basement shelter. In early 1945 Moses Fernbach took his daughter to the village of Pustow near Greifwald. Apart from the estate-owner Mathilde Böckelmann, no one knew that Miriam, who worked in the house under the name of Margot Friedrich, was Jewish.
In 1947 Miriam Fernbach emigrated to Palestine with her parents. She became a nurse and later married the doctor Israel Bruderman. In November 2016 she traveled to Greifswald to take part in the ceremony posthumously honoring Mathilde Böckelmann as Righteous Among the Nations. There, she met the daughter of her former rescuer for the first time in 70 years.