The siblings Doris Doctor, née Bernheim (born April 11, 1923) and John, née Hans Bernheim (born August 5, 1924) grew up in Tübingen with their parents.

Their mother Hanna Bernheim worked as a social worker and succeeded Karoline Löwenstein as chairwoman of the Jewish Women's Association of Tübingen from 1936 to 1938. Her father Adolph Bernheim was a textile manufacturer and owner of the mecanical color weaving mill in Bronnweiler near Reutlingen. The Bernheim family lived from 1930 to 1938 as the only Jewish family in a house on the Österberg. According to John Bernheim, his mother was the first woman with a driver's license in Tübingen.