Elisabeth Helfer, neč Steinhart, was born in Vienna on the 8th November 1919. Her mother originally came from St. Margarethen. Her father Josef came from Deutsch-Brodersdorf and worked as an office manager at the firm Wolf, in Eisenstadt. Having grown up in Eisenstadt, she also went to the grammar school there, completing her A levels in 1937. Elisabeth Helfer then enrolled for Philology at Vienna University. Two days after the Nazis took power in March 1938, her father was arrested by the Gestapo in Eisenstadt, interrogated, and after 6 weeks' imprisonment, forced to sign an undertaking that he would leave the country within 48 hours. He and his family were able to get on to a plane to Italy as "tourists" in June 1938. They were given help by the Italian branch of the firm Wolf in Fiume (Rijeka). At the end of July 1938, Elisabeth Helfer was able to get to London, leaving her parents behind for a time, as they had no entry permits. Later her parents also received the necessary permits necessary to enter England from the Refugee Committee in Worthing (Sussex). They followed their daughter to England in May 1939. In London, Elisabeth first worked for different families as a domestic. Later on she stayed at the house of Leslie Sunshine, who took care of refugees banished by the Nazis. After various office jobs, Elisabeth Helfer applied for a job as secretary in the Austrian department of the BBC and was accepted. She experienced the air raid attacks on London, and by a lucky coincidence escaped an attack on the BBC building where she was working. After the war she married the Viennese engineer Hermann Helfer, with whom she and her twins went to Sydney in 1949, where she worked at the Australian Broadcasting Commission. In 1951, they moved to Buenos Aires, and she began teaching German and English after a three-year teacher-training course. They returned to England in 1976. Her husband died in 1983. Elisabeth Helfer now lives as a pensioner and member of the Third Age University in London.