She was the last surviving member of the anti-Nazi resistance group The White Rose, which wrote and distributed leaflets critical of the Nazi regime. The others were executed by the Nazis; she was sentenced to a year in prison. She was released in March 1944, only to be rearrested soon after. She was held in four separate prisons before being liberated by American troops in April 1945. Two years later, she emigrated to the United States, where she continued her medical studies.