Helen Koch Elder (née Hannah Maria Regina Koch) was born in 1917 as one of five children of physician and university professor Richard Hermann Koch (1882-1949) and his wife Maria Margarethe neé Rosenthal (1892-1973). Helen grew up in the Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse. Her education at the Technical High School for Women ('Höhere Fachschule für Frauenberufe') was cut short due to the introduction of anti-Jewish laws in 1933. She trained as a dressmaker between 1934 and 1936.

Due to the increasing difficulties to live and work under the Nazi regime the whole family emigrated between 1936 and 1938. Her parents, sister Gertrude and brother Friedrich emigrated to Yessentuki in the Soviet Union, her sisters Barbara (later Naomi) and Eva left for Palestine, and Helen went to the United States. None of the family members returned to Germany after the Second World War.

Helen converted to Christianity in 1940 and got married to Robert A Elder in 1942. She became an American citizen in 1944. Her sister Naomi (formerly Barbara) was married to Walter Laqueur who served as director of the Wiener Library from 1965-1994.