Hildegard Naumann lived in Berlin and had to perform forced labor, as a Jew. Her sister was deported to Auschwitz in December 1942; her mother had committed suicide a day previously. Hildegard Naumann’s attempt to flee to Denmark failed, and she had to go underground. Her non-Jewish friend Erna Dubnack took her into her home in Charlottenburg, where she lived with her young son and two sub-tenants. Fearing the boy might say the wrong thing, they pretended “Aunt Hilde” only visited during the day, and did not sleep in the apartment.
The building was hit by a bomb in August 1943. Dubnack was allocated a new apartment, which the sub-tenants also moved into. There were now three of them sharing one room. In March 1945, when the situation was growing ever more dangerous, Dubnack asked a colleague to take in a “bombed-out friend,” and paid her to do so. She continued sharing her meagre food rations with her friend until the end of the war.
After the war, Hildegard Naumann returned to her old profession as a librarian. She died as a result of a car accident in April 1946.