The Jewish sales clerk Lotte Basch managed to escape through the rear door of her apartment in Berlin-Schöneberg on June 1, 1942, when her parents were arrested by the Gestapo. She hid in various places for several months, and was then taken in by her acquaintance Hermann Dietz, who was a sub-tenant in the Wilmersdorf district. Later, he hid her on the small island of Reiswerder in Lake Tegel, where he had a garden house.
There were other Jews hiding on the island: Erna and Gerhart Fleck and 18-year-old Gerda Lesser. These three were arrested in Tegel on August 23, 1944 in Tegel, and as a result, Lotte Basch and Hermann Dietz were also picked up. They both later stated that a Gestapo informer named Peter Friedländer had caused their arrest. This man’s identity has not been established, however.
All of them were taken to the Schulstraße assembly camp. On September 6, Basch was transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp, then on November 3, 1944 to Bergen-Belsen, and finally to Salzwedel, a sub-camp of Neuengamme concentration camp. Emaciated and sick, she was liberated by the U.S. Army on April 14, 1945. Lotte Basch emigrated to the United States at the beginning of 1947.