82 years later, Holocaust survivors reunite

It's six now a pretty incredible story of friendship, hope and perseverance after it date eight decades when her idyllic childhood was shattered by Nazi violence against Jews. Betty Gribinchikoff was forced to flee Germany, leaving her best friend, a little Jewish girl by the name of Anna Marie behind. She was convinced Anna Marie died in the Holocaust. But we are so happy to tell you tonight that recently the two were reunited right here in St. Petersburg. FOX 13's Jennifer Holton tells us how they found each other after all these years. 82 years ago at a playground in Berlin, Betty Gribinchikoff said goodbye to her childhood best friend, Anna Marie. They told us that we should say goodbye to each other and we would maybe see each other again some other time. And we cried and we hugged each other and we cried some more. Little girls, best friends, you know, very difficult. It was 1939. Hitler's anti-Semitism had spread through Berlin like a virus and their families were planning to flee Nazi Germany. Betty's would escape to China, but she never knew what would become of her dear friend, Anna Marie. I didn't know at the time whether she got out because they had, she didn't know if they were going to get out, you know, and so 82 years passed. And in those 82 years, Betty would go on to marry, move around the world and raise a family. She'd talk about the Holocaust often publicly, often mentioning Anna Marie. Every time I gave a talk, I always mentioned her name and I always said, if anybody ever hears of someone called Anna Marie Varnberg, let me know. Enter Ita Gordon, a cataloger of the Holocaust survivor testimonies for USC's Shoah Foundation. Gordon had listened to a speech in Chile recently given by an Anna Maria Varnberg about escaping Berlin in the 1930s. She wanted to see if the Shoah Foundation had Anna Maria's testimony. She didn't find Varnberg's testimony, but she did find this. I had one particular girlfriend whose name I always mentioned. Can I mention her here? When I talk about my life, her name was Anna Marie Varnberg and I never knew what happened to her and I'm always wondering if maybe she's somewhere and she can hear this. Betty's testimony from 1997 was tied to Anna Marie's. She of all the testimonies that I listened to, same school, same area. Gordon believed she had located Betty's missing friend of 82 years. They had tried and they thought the other one was no longer living. Her first name was Anna Marie. She probably died in the war. Knowing this was not the case, Gordon knew she had to reconnect them. After a while it sank in that this was real, you know. In March, they got together for a Zoom, but two weeks ago, for the first time since they were nine, these 91-year-olds made a toast to a magnificent reunion. It was just, it felt perfectly right. It was wonderful. We just hugged each other. We didn't cry. We just laughed and talked and we drank champagne. Betty says it was like reconnecting with family you thought was lost forever. And it's just so satisfying for me to know that there's another whole family there that is now my family too and I'm hers. In St. Petersburg, Jennifer Holton, FOX 13 News. It's amazing and they always will be too. And since their reunion, Betty says she and Anna Marie have been chatting every Sunday morning and they have yet to miss a call. They have a lot of catching up to do.