Fritzi Lorber was born on November 23, 1923 in Vienna, Austria. He enjoyed life in this fine city until his teenage years. In March of 1938, when Fritzi was only fourteen years old, tanks and trucks rolled through the streets. He saw the Nazi soldiers storm into his city. The soldiers were the Sturmabteilung or SA, the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi party. Their nickname was "brownshirts," and their uniforms looked very expensive to Fritzi. The soldiers in brown shirts were intimidating and very frightening to the Jewish boy.