Erna and her surviving children are listed in the 1939 census of Dresden at Gabelsbergerstrasse 15,II. Erna and Ludwig had divorced some 6 years earlier and Ludwig had already emigrated to the USA by this time.

Mara Thorson writes: Henry boarded the train in Dresden to begin his journey to the US on March 3, 1941. He traveled the Trans-Siberian railway through Russia, Manchuria and Korea, took a ferry to Japan, the Kamakura Maru from Yokohama to Hawaii and then on to San Francisco where he landed on April 10, 1941. After another train ride across the United States, Henry met his father, Ludwig Staub, in New York on April 14, 1941 where he began his life as an immigrant.

The transcription of the 1939 census of Dresden gives his date of birth as 17.05.1919; whereas Mara Thorson, a close relative, gives 17.05.1918.