Helle Genie Lotinga was born in Aarhus to Jewish rentier Moritz Lotinga and Ellen Larsine (née Rasmussen). Her parents divorced when she was 5, at which point she moved with her mother from Old Rye to Copenhagen. Her paternal family escaped to Sweden doing the occupation of Denmark in 1943. Helle changed her last name from Lotinga to Virkner in 1944.