Edith Wolff studied philosophy but did not take her final examinations. Raised as a Protestant, she converted to Judaism in 1933 in protest against the National Socialists, and became a convinced pacifist and Zionist.
Although she was classified by the Nuremberg “race laws” as a “1st-grade Mischling” (“half-breed”) and was at threat herself, she supported numerous Jews. In the spring of 1943, the organization Chug Chaluzi (circle of pioneers) formed around her and Jizchak Schwersenz, eventually numbering forty members. They came partly from the Zionist youth movement, and were able to keep the underground Zionist group alive for more than a year.
The members were united by a will to survive, to support those deported to the camps, and to try to save their own lives by escaping abroad. In the summer of 1943, Wolff was summoned to the Gestapo and eventually awarded a long prison sentence for passing on food ration cards to Jews. Edith Wolff survived her imprisonment in 18 concentration camps and penal institutions.