With the loss of her husband, her children far away, and the war refugees returning home, Rebbetzin Chana was now completely alone. She yearned to be reunited with her eldest son. A friend helped her obtain a train ticket from Alma-Ata to Moscow, at that time a nearly impossible achievement.

Rebbetzin Chana arrived in Moscow in late 1945, and lived discreetly in a small suburb. Her situation was dreadful. Forced to hide her whereabouts, Rebbetzin Chana would find a new place to stay every day—where she slept one night, she could not return the next. Thus she lived for several months.

Rebbetzin Chana knew that she must leave Russia, but there were numerous hurdles in the way. A committee of a few devoted chassidim was involved in an elaborate mission for her rescue.

In the summer of 1946, Rebbetzin Chana eventually crossed the Russian-Polish border, arriving in Krakow. She then proceeded to an American “Displaced Persons” Camp in Pocking, Germany.

Rebbetzin Chana’s oldest son, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, now living in New York, sent telegrams to a number of people of influence to intervene on his mother’s behalf in obtaining the necessary papers and visas for her to continue her journey to safety. Rebbetzin Chana eventually left Pocking and traveled by way of Munich and Frankfurt to Paris, arriving there in Adar 1947.