Hilde Grunebaum was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1923 to Julius and Hedwig Seligman Grunebaum. They were a “sophisticated” city family and good German Reform Jews. Hedwig’s birthday was November 9, and on November 9, 1938, directly after her birthday party, the family climbed to the rooftop of their apartment building and watched their synagogue burn during Kristallnacht. Later that week, all of the men in the family were picked up by the Gestapo. They were released after two weeks, and the family decided it was their time to make plans to leave.
In 1939, Hilde and her family were interned in a Displaced Persons Camp in Rotterdam, Holland for almost a year before coming to the United States in 1940 on the last Dutch freighter to leave Europe. Hilde married Lee Mason in 1946.
Connecting Stories: Lee Mason