Gerda Lesser was a Jewish girl who lived with her parents in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. Her father died in 1940. She had to perform forced labor at the Teves works in the Reinickendorf district. Her department foreman there was Wilhelm Daene, a convinced social democrat and opponent of the regime. On December 16, 1942, he and his wife Margarete took 17-year-old Gerda into their home, followed shortly later by two more Jewish girls, Lola Alexander and Ursula Finke. The Daenes shared a house in the Tegel neighborhood of Konradshöhe with Margarete’s parents. When Ursula Finke was arrested on August 8, 1944, the other two young women had to leave the house for safety’s sake. Margarete Daene placed Gerda Lesser with Erna and Gerhard Fleck, who were living illegally on the small island of Reiswerder in Lake Tegel.
On August 23, 1944, the Flecks were arrested by the Gestapo on entering a restaurant in Tegel, and Gerda Lesser was subsequently arrested on Reiswerder. All three were deported to Theresienstadt on September 5, 1944. On October 1, 1944, Erna Fleck and Gerda Lesser were deported to Auschwitz, where Gerda Lesser perished.