Born into a Jewish family in Germany, the descendant of many rabbis, Dorothy came to school in England in 1938. Arriving without a word of English, she discovered that she had better Latin and Greek than her teachers. She had one last visit back to Germany before war broke out, but after that never saw her parents again. Her mother died in Auschwitz, but her father’s fate was unknown. With funds cut off she had to abandon thoughts of university, but when she was 17 her life was completely re-orientated, as she had a dream of Jesus that brought her to faith. She became a member of Cheam Baptist Church and, after study at Ridgelands Bible College, was accepted as a member of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship in 1953. In 1957 she landed in Indonesia.