Katharina (Käthe) Meier grew up in a Christian family in Lohmar, around 15 miles (25 km) southeast of Cologne. After 1933 her mother Maria maintained contact to the Jewish Bernauer family, for whom she had previously looked after the children. On September 11, 1944, Nanny Bernauer and her daughter Karola had to report to Cologne-Müngersdorf assembly camp, as Jews. Her husband Erwin accompanied them, although he was not Jewish.
Karola Bernauer had to care for the sick in the camp; when she was sent out to obtain medications, she fled to Maria Meier. The next day, 18-year-old Käthe Meier flirted with one of the guards and managed to get Karola’s parents out of the camp in Cologne and bring them to Lohmar as well. The Meiers hid them in their basement for around four months, until neighbors grew suspicious. At the end of 1944, Elisabeth and Ludwig Weeg took the Bernauer family into their home.
Käthe Overath née Meier was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1978 for her courageous help. She, her parents, and Ludwig and Elisabeth Weeg were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem in 1990.