Holm was born as Renate Franke in Berlin. She says she decided to become an opera singer when she was twelve after being inspired by a film version of "Madama Butterfly" with Maria Cebotari in the lead role. Her mother had taken her to the cinema as a treat in celebration of an excellent school report. In 1943 her parents separated. That same year women with children were evacuated from the bombed out centre of Berlin, and the Frankes were sent to the Spreewald region roughly 90 km (50 miles) to the east of the city. Appreciative of her new surroundings, she lived out the rest of her childhood in and around the village of where her mother at one stage served as local mayor and registrar. Renate's first taste of musical performance came in Lübben as a member of the school and church choir. She was a pupil at the Paul-Gerhardt-Gymnasium, a six kilometer (four mile) cycle journey from her home at Ragow. In Berlin she had attended a single-sex school, and the Paul-Gerhardt-Gymnasium provided her first experience of mixed gender schooling: fifty years later she would still be in touch with two friends – a tenor and a bass – with whom she had formed a school singing trio.