Helen Waterford

Helen Waterford is one of the two people whose stories are profiled in Parallel Journeys. Helen was born Helen Katz in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1909, to Jewish parents, a German mother and Lithuanian father. Helen loved to learn and travel and had no real interest in typical female pursuits such as marriage. Helen did marry a man she met while traveling, Siegfried Wohlfarth, in 1933 and they had a daughter, Doris, in 1937.

Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the late 1930s impacted Helen and Siegfried's lives as Jews because of anti-Semitic activities inflicted by the Nazis. Siegfried lost his job and he and Helen eventually moved to Amsterdam to escape the oppressive restrictions against Jews in Germany. Conditions worsened for Jews in countries bordering Germany and Helen and Siegfried ultimately decided to go into hiding but not before making the painful decision to give Doris to strangers to...