Elisabeth (Lilly) Wust, a mother of four sons, lived in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. Her husband was a soldier on the front. In November 1942 she met and fell in love with a young woman, who moved in with her in 1943. When Wust learned that her lover was a Jew in hiding called Felice Schragenheim, she stood by her and divorced her husband. When the two women returned from an excursion on August 21, 1944, Schragenheim was arrested by the Gestapo. Wust was interrogated and had to report regularly to the police. A recipient of the Nazi Mother’s Cross, Wust was spared further punishment.
Schragenheim was deported to Theresienstadt in September 1944. Wust went there but was turned away by Camp Commandant Heindl. Schragenheim is presumed to have perished in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945.
From February 1945 until the end of the war, Wust hid three Jewish women and provided them with food.
She received the Federal Cross of Merit for her help in 1981 and was honored by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations in 1999. Her story became widely known through Erica Fischer’s book “Aimée & Jaguar” (1994).