After the Nazis came to power, her parents, writer Walter Meckauer and his wife Lotte, emigrated with their daughter, first to Switzerland and then to Italy, where they remained until 1939. When Italy began intensifying its anti-Semitic measures and foreign Jews were threatened with deportation, the Meckauers were forced to emigrate again. In June 1939 they reached France, where Walter Meckauer was interned for some time in Les Milles, Lotte, and Brigitte Meckauer in the women’s camp in Gurs. In 1942, they fled from France across no-man's land to Switzerland, where they spent the next few years. After the war ended, Brigitte Meckauer succeeded in gaining admission to a school for interpreters in Geneva. Her lack of a university entrance qualification was compensated by the knowledge of languages that she had acquired during her many moves from one country to another. In 1947, the Meckauer family decided to emigrate to the USA. A short time after arriving in New York, Brigitte Meckauer found employment as a translator in the antiquarian bookshop of Viennese émigré Herbert Reichner.

Brigitte Meckauer met actor Rolf Kralovitz in the “New World Club” theatre group in 1951 and married him in 1952. Kralovitz, who was imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp from 1943 to 1945, had emigrated to the USA a few years after the war ended. Walter and Lotte Meckauer returned to Germany in 1952, followed a short time later by Rolf and Brigitte Kralovitz-Meckauer. After spending some time in Munich, they settled in Cologne, where Rolf Kralovitz was in charge of productions at WDR until he went blind and Brigitte Meckauer worked as a translator.

As joint authors, they both worked on an audio play and radio features telling the story of Rolf Kralovitz’ childhood and adolescence under the Nazi regime. Their publications and educational work aimed to promote democracy and prevent events from being forgotten. Brigitte Meckauer’s publication Die Zeit mit meinem Vater [The Time With My Father] appeared in 1982, her volume of reminiscences “Summary of my life” in 2007. The translator and author, who together with her husband received the Federal Cross of Merit and the City of Leipzig's Medal of Honour, died in Cologne on 19 January 2014.

Brigitte Kralovitz-Meckauer was associated with the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 for many years. While she was still alive, she presented it with biographical documents and a partial estate including papers belonging to her father Walter Meckauer.