Nine books have been written specifically about Hertha’s heartache. Her marriage to her husband, the doctor Erich Nathorff, had become very difficult after her expulsion from Germany. He passed his medical exams, she kept the family afloat with jobs such as kitchen maid, night nurse, private nurse, domestic servant, pianist and nurse at a youth camp. Despite her German doctorate in medicine, she received no support from him to establish herself professionally in New York. When he died in 1954, she had no savings and fell into poverty. The early death of his son Heinz Nathorff, born 10.1.1925, d. 1988 drove her to despair. Too much love and heartache for one life.