Basch was born in 1930 in Tacovo, modern day Tachiv, in the Carpathian Mountains which were then in the most easterly part of Czechoslovakia. In 1941 there were 2,150 Jews living in Tacovo.
Basch’s parents were Mendel and Blanka. She had two siblings, her brother Ignac (b. 1929) and her sister Frieda (b. 1929). It is unknown if these were her only siblings.