When she was thirteen, her train journey to a boarding school in the United Kingdom was delayed in Nürnberg where she attended one of the annual Nürnberg Rallies. After writing about the rally for a class assignment she was given "Mein Kampf" to read by her teacher so she might be able to understand what she saw there. After the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938, she moved to France, where she worked with orphans during the German occupation until she had to flee the country because of her connection to the French Resistance.