Background
Liesl Herbst (née Westreich) was born on November 8, 1902 in the town of Jaegerndorf (now called Krnov) in Silesia where her family owned the Gessler distillery. Her father Leo Westreich ran the company together with his brother-in-law Siegfried Gessler. During World War 2, her mother and one sister were killed at Theresienstadt/Terazin concentration camp.