Pfaff is the only child of Emilie Schenkl and Subhas Chandra Bose, who—with a view to attempting an armed attack on the British Indian Empire with the help of Imperial Japan—left Schenkl and Pfaff in Europe, and moved to southeast Asia, when Pfaff was four months old.[4][4] Pfaff was raised by her mother, who worked shifts in a telephone trunk office during the postwar years to support the family, which included Pfaff's maternal grandmother.[5] Pfaff was not given her father's last name at birth, and grew up as Anita Schenkl.[5]
Pfaff is married to Professor Martin Pfaff, who was previously a member of the Bundestag (the German parliament), representing the SPD. They have three children: Peter Arun, Thomas Krishna and Maya Carina.[6]
Bose, Sarmila (2005), "Love in the Time of War: Subhas Chandra Bose's Journeys to Nazi Germany (1941) and towards the Soviet Union (1945)", Economic and Political Weekly, 40 (3): 249–256, JSTOR4416082