Gertrud was one of the people who received the refugees who arrived in Malmö in the spring of 1945. She had volunteered with the Swedish Red Cross for a long time and had been trained to help the refugees. Despite being prepared she could not have predicted what she would encounter.

Gertrud worked in the sanitation groups and was among the first people to receive the refugees who arrived on the ships. She took their clothes off, washed them and disinfected them with DDT to kill fleas and lice.

On 11 May 1945 the ship S/S Homberg of Duisburg-Ruhrort arrived in Malmö. Many of the refugees were in very bad shape and the sanitation work continued all night.

On 26 May 1945 Gertrud was hastily taken by ambulance to the hospital for infectious diseases. She died nine days later. She had become infected by epidemic typhus while caring for the refugees who came on the ship.

A number of the Swedish aid workers caught epidemic typhus dong this work and two of them died. Gertrud was 32 when she died. She left behind her husband, Nils Fröberg, and their one-year-old son, Bo.