The unmarried Jewish dentist Dr. Erich Oppenheimer practiced on Uhlandstraße in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. In February 1943 he went underground to evade deportation, hiding in various places.
His first place of refuge was the sexton’s office at the Church of Bethlehem in Berlin-Mitte. The pastor there, Walter Nordmann, was part of the Bethany resistance circle. After that he stayed for a time with the resistance group’s leader, the publisher Cuno Horkenbach and his wife Margarete. Through his brother-in-law Dr. Walter Stackfleth, Erich Oppenheimer had previously obtained forged papers identifying him as Erich Oswald.
Oppenheimer was later hidden for short periods by a longstanding patient, Else Kurz, and by her sister Frieda Schultze, both of whom also provided him with food. He also found refuge with Frieda Sternberg in a garden house in Rangsdorf.
Erich Oppenheimer survived and reopened his dental surgery after the war.