Anna Boros lived in Berlin. In 1938, aged 13, she had to leave her school and start at a Jewish school. In March 1942 she was ordered to report for deportation. Her mother, Julie Wehr, was married to a non-Jewish man, which protected her from deportation. Anna Boros asked her doctor, Mohamed (Mod) Helmy, for help. She was able to stay in Dr. Helmy’s practice for the time being. He claimed she was an Egyptian medical assistant.
Helmy arranged for Boros to convert to Islam. She was given the Arabic forename of Nadja. A friend of Helmy’s was prepared to marry her for appearance’s sake. However, the German and Egyptian authorities would not recognize the marriage contract they concluded. This put an end to Boros’s plan to attain Egyptian citizenship and leave Germany. An attempt for Mod Helmy to adopt her also failed.
After the medical practice was hit in an air raid, Helmy hid Anna Boros in his fiancée’s garden shed.
In January 1945, Julie Wehr revealed her daughter’s hiding place during an interrogation. With Helmy’s support, Anna Boros managed to escape in time. She survived and emigrated to the United States.
