Anita Rothschild was born on May 16, 1924 in Frankfurt, Germany. She grew up in the town of Friedberg about 20 miles north of the city, where her father worked as the president and manager of a local bank branch.
Rothschild was eight years old when Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. She remembered seeing more and more swastikas around town and other children threw stones at her on her way to Hebrew classes. Her father received so many threats that he hired a bodyguard as personal protection. Ultimately he was forced out of his position at the bank.
In May 1938 the family departed for New York, mere months before the pogrom of Kristallnacht. Living with relatives in the Bronx, Rothschild mother secured work as a cook while her father sold coffee as a traveling salesman. Her parents separated about a year later. Despite family turmoil and having to learn English as a second language, Rothschild graduated from high school at 17 and received a scholarship for a business school in New York. She got a job at a millinery buying office and the next year became a U.S. citizen.
Rothschild eventually moved to Dallas, Texas to be closer to her mother. There she met her husband, a German immigrant from Düsseldorf. The couple married and in September 1952 moved to Houston where they raised their two children.
Parents:
Fred Reis, survived
Gertrude Bernstein Reis, survived