When she was 16, a fellow schoolgirl in Germany spoke an anti-Semitic slur; Hilde knocked her front teeth out. Fearing arrest, she fled to Palestine, where she trained in pediatric nursing while taking voice lessons. She had to return to Europe for a career in opera, since Palestine had no opera houses. Eventually, the director of the Vienna State Opera hired her to sing the title role in "Aida." She accepted the job despite criticism from family and friends for choosing to sing in Austria, still a "nest of Nazis" in 1947.