After her attempts to emigrate failed, Felice Schragenheim had to perform forced labor. In October 1942, aged 20, she feigned suicide and went underground. One of her hiding places was in the home of Ursula Schaaf, a non-Jewish friend. Schaaf was performing a mandatory year of service in Elisabeth Wust’s household in Berlin-Wilmersdorf with her four sons. Wust’s husband was a soldier on the front.
In November 1942 Schragenheim met Wust, who fell in love with her and took her into her home in May 1943. On learning that her lover was a Jew in hiding, Wust stood by her and divorced her husband. When the two women returned from an excursion to the Havel river on August 21, 1944, Felice Schragenheim was arrested by the Gestapo. She was deported to Theresienstadt in September 1944 and from there to other camps. She presumably perished in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945.
Her story became widely known through Erica Fischer’s book “Aimée & Jaguar” (1994) and the film of the same name, directed by Max Färberböck (1999).