Photo of sisters Ursula and Helga Beyer, 1920s.

Ursula Beyer and her two-years-younger sister Helga grew up in an interfaith family. Their father, Adolf, was Jewish and their mother, Else, although born to Christian parents, was an atheist. When the girls were 13 and 11, the peaceful childhood was disrupted by Else’s death. Ursula remembered how their widowed father made scrambled eggs for her and Helga using this child-sized pan and spoon, and she carried them with her around the world when she left Germany.