After the Chinese Communist Revolution, Betty, husband and family were forced out, wound up in Australia and eventually settled in New Jersey. She's now the mother of five, grandmother to seven, and a great-grandmother to six. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Betty spent years searching for Anne Marie and brought up her name at every public talk she gave. She eventually assumed that the worst had happened.
Meanwhile in Santiago,Chile, another Holocaust survivor, same age as Betty, also mourned for her childhood best friend. Ana María had escaped with her parents. Every other member of her family died in the Holocaust. Ana Maria, who still lives in Santiago, married, and is the mother of two, a grandmother of six, and a great-grandmother of 10.
Ana Maria searched for her best friend, but she searched for "Ilse". Ilse had changed her name. And Anne Marie had, too.
In November, Ana María told her survival story for an international Zoom conference. Listening to her was Ita Gordon, an indexer for the USC Shoah Foundation. She searched the records to find Ilse and found a match. 24 years ago, Betty had given a testimony to the Foundation and mentioned Berlin and Anne Marie.
82 years after they said goodby, the Foundation set up a reunion call. During the reunion, Ana María shared her beloved childhood treasure - a note Betty gave her just before they parted. “When one day in later years you take this small book in hand, think about how nice it was that we knew one another.”
They hope to spend Rosh Hashanah together.
Two best friends and their families...
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Also: https://globalnews.ca/news/7663225/frie ... i-germany/
You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy.
