Her Story

A Berlin childhood

Betty Grebenschikoff was born Ilse Kohn in Berlin in 1929, into a large and loving extended family. Her parents, Olga and Max Kohn, came from many siblings; her older sister was Edith. Life was full of music, family, and peace — until it wasn't. In the 1930s, the Nazi regime stripped Jewish citizens of their citizenship, their livelihoods, and eventually their safety.

Escape to Shanghai

In 1939, Max Kohn received a summons to appear at Gestapo headquarters. Just before he could be arrested, the Kohn family fled Germany — through Naples, Italy, and then by ship to China. Shanghai was one of the only ports in the world that would accept Jewish refugees without passports or visas. It saved their lives.

When Shanghai fell under Axis control during World War II, Betty and her family — along with roughly 20,000 other Jewish refugees — were forced into the Hongkew ghetto by Japanese authorities. She came of age there.

A new life, a new name

After the war, Betty met Oleg Grebenschikoff in Shanghai. They married in 1948, and in 1950 they left China — first for Australia, then in 1953 for the United States. She raised five children. She became American. And for decades, she carried her childhood with her quietly.

Becoming a witness

Late in life, Betty began to speak — first to her family, then to audiences. She wrote Once My Name Was Sara originally as a record for her children. It became something larger: used in Holocaust studies, a primary source on the little-known story of Shanghai's Jewish refugees, and an invitation into one woman's extraordinary life. She is featured in two documentaries, Shanghai Ghetto (2002) and Survival in Shanghai (2020), and gave hundreds of talks at museums, synagogues, schools, and universities.

In 2021, after 82 years apart, Betty was reunited with her childhood best friend Ana María Wahrenberg, who had also fled Berlin as a girl. The two women, both in their 90s, met again over Zoom. The story made headlines around the world.

The end of a long life

Betty died at home in Florida on February 22, 2023, at the age of 93. She lived a full and vibrant life as a mother, author, speaker, and educator. She was preceded in death by her sister Edith Faris, her husband Oleg (d. 2002), and her daughter Nina (d. 1984).