During World War II, she studied at the Lycée Victor Hugo in Paris.
[1] In 1941, Wattenberg joined the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE), for which she made false papers for Jewish people to escape to the south of France.
Her mother was arrested during the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in 1942, and Wattenberg managed to secure her release by proving that she worked in a factory supplying clothes to members of the German army.
She accompanied groups of children in Annecy, and aided their passage into Switzerland.
After the Liberation of Paris, she worked at the Œuvre de protection des enfants juifs (OPEJ), whose objective was to welcome and protect children who lost their parents due to deportation.