For 83 years, Betty Grebenschikoff believed her best friend from Germany was dead. But just a few weeks ago, there she was, standing in a hotel room.
At the age of nine, they shared a tearful hug in a Berlin schoolyard when their families were forced to leave the country because of World War II. They both thought that would be their final hug. But after more than eight decades apart, the two women, who are now 92 years old, embraced once again.
The survivors of the war had searched for each other for years, collecting and seeking information from anyone who might know something. They had no luck, mainly because both women changed their names later in life.
It was not until an indexer (检索程序) from a nonprofit organization founded by Steven Spielberg, which preserves information of these survivors, noticed similarities in their information that the two women are linked together. For the first time, Grebenschikoff who lives in Shanghai now, got to know what happened to her long-lost childhood best friend: Wahrenberg and her family went to Santiago, Chile, where she still lives today.
With the help of the organization, the two women and their families reconnected on the Internet. Talking in their native German, they promised to meet in person, and one year later, they finally did.
As Grebenschikoff went to meet Wahrenberg at her hotel room, they hugged for the first time in 83 years. "It was as if we had seen each other yesterday," Grebenschikoff said."It was comfortable. "Wahrenberg had the same feeling, "It was very special that two people, after 83 years, still love one another." The women spent four days together. They went shopping, shared meals and, mostly, talked for hours - making up for the lost time. "We're not the girls we used to be when we were 9, that's for sure, but we kept giggling like we were little kids." Grebenschikoff said. "It was such a joy for both of us."
