Marysia Frankental was born Ziunia Tugendhaft in a small town in Poland called Boryslaw, now part of the Ukraine. Her parents, Maurice and Anna, had previously lived in Vienna. They were Jewish, but not observant. She had a younger brother called Joseph, who was very bright.

Her childhood was happy within a close knit and loving family. Most of the family worked in the oil industry. Marysia would sometimes stay with her grandparents, whom she was very fond of.

Marysia’s parents, who were rooted within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, spoke German and Polish at home, and she was brought up to be bi-lingual. She had to completely forget her German during the war, as this would have been a giveaway that she was Jewish. She rarely spoke German subsequently.