However, as a Jew she was forced to leave Germany in 1934 and settled in then Palestine, where she worked as a nurse and shoe saleswoman in Jerusalem, while studying voice with Rose Pauly.

[5] She made her operatic debut on 3 February 1947 at the Vienna State Opera in the title role of Verdi's Aida to great acclaim; she remained with this theatre until 1971.

Her repertory also included Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, Eva in his Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and the title roles of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride and Puccini's Tosca.

[7] She made guest appearances at the Royal Opera House in London (from 1950 to 1953; the title roles of Aida and Tosca, Lisa in The Queen of Spades, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Contessa Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro), the Glyndebourne Festival and the Holland Festival, at the Paris Opéra, La Monnaie in Brussels, La Scala in Milan, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, etc.

[8] She left a notable recording of Donna Anna in a complete Don Giovanni, with conductor Rudolf Moralt, opposite George London, Léopold Simoneau and Sena Jurinac.