She performed with Heinz Sandberg in the Hamburg bars Faun and Trichter. In early 1944, the Gestapo investigated Sandberg for playing jazz and charged him. Friedländer was now supposed to do forced labor, but went into hiding after an Italian musician offered to hide her in Berlin.
In the further course of 1944 she performed illegally in Berlin bars in the Latin Quarter such as Orangerie or Patria; among the audience was Goebbels adjutant Diether von Wedel, a jazz fan.
