Oberlander was born at Muelheim-Ruhr , Germany , on June 20 , 1921 . She is the niece of the German-Jewish educationalist Kurt Hahn , the founder of Schule Schloss Salem in Germany and Gordonstoun and UWC Atlantic College in the UK ; and Elisabeth Jastrow , the classical archaeologist . In 1938 , when Oberlander was 18 , she and her sister and mother escaped Nazi persecution after the " '' Kristallnacht '' " Night of Broken Glass pogrom and fled to England , and then emigrated to the United States in 1939 . Her mother , Beate Hahn , a horticulturist who wrote gardening books for children , fostered in her a deep love and appreciation for nature from a young age . Since she had a garden bed when she was four years old and planted peas and corn , she knew the joy of growing . In an interview with Mechtild Manus , tracing the roots of Oberlander 's interests in landscape architecture , Oberlander stated " At the age of eleven ... I studied a mural in the artist 's studio showing the river Rhine and an imaginary town . When I asked the artist about the green spaces in this mural , she told me that these were parks . When I came home I told my mother ' I want to make parks . ' From there all my education was directed towards becoming a landscape architect . " Her mother had a truck farm during the war , in New Hampshire , which Oberlander worked on
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Cornelia Oberlander