When World War II broke out, Grouitch escaped Serbia while Belgrade was being bombed taking refugee children with her.

While a student in Athens she met her husband, Dr Slavko Grujić, a member of a distinguished family of Serbia, who was at the time Chargé d'affaires of the Serbian Legation in Paris.

Dr. Louise Tayler Jones, of Washington, D.C., on Grouitch's request, volunteered to proceed to Serbia as medical director and organize the hospital, and Dr. Catherine Travis, of New Britain, Connecticut, was appointed assistant.

Dr. Jones, after giving the hospital a good start, sailed from Saloniki, Greece on 30 September and reported to the United States on 22 October 1915.

Very soon afterward, Serbia was invaded by combined Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian forces, on 13 October, the baby hospital ceased to exist and became a field ambulance to care for the sick and wounded Serbian soldiers.

[1] With refugee children in tow, Grouitch fled Serbia on the outbreak of World War II as Belgrade was being bombed.

[1] According to historian Barbara Tuchman, during the first and second world war,[8] Mable Grouitch was involved in the recruitment of agents for the British Naval Intelligence.