Inge Scheer

Inge grew up in Vienna's Leopoldstadt, a large Jewish district located between the banks of the Danube Canal and the Danube River. The Scheers loved music, and Inge grew up listening to family members singing selections from popular operettas.

1933-39: Inge was 8 years old when the Germans annexed Austria in 1938 and her parents decided they'd better flee. They were smuggled illegally, via the Netherlands, to Brussels where the Jewish community helped to hide illegal refugees like Inge and her family. There in Belgium she began to perform in the Yiddish theater, and became known as a child star. Once she performed in a show that featured the famous Yiddish actress Molly Picon.

1940-44: The Germans occupied Belgium in 1940. Inge became known as "Irene," because Inge sounded too German. A year later, her sister Herta disappeared. Her family moved to a neighborhood on the outskirts of Brussels, where Inge attended a Catholic school. But when the Mother Superior (knowing Inge was Jewish) said, "Mary is the mother of ALL children, believers and non-believers," Inge feared the kids would find out, so she never went back. She was 14 when Brussels was liberated. Then Inge and her family began to search for her sister.

After the war, Inge learned that her sister had perished at Auschwitz. In 1948 the Scheers left Europe for Argentina, and in 1949 they immigrated to the United States.