Ernst Ludwig (Lutz) Ehrlich, a student at the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin until 1940, lived opposite the synagogue on Levetzowstrasse, which the Gestapo began using as an assembly point for deportations to extermination camps in 1941. Ehrlich went into hiding on March 1, 1943, after the large-scale raid on Berlin’s factories. He was able to hide for two months in the home of the factory-owner Franz Schürholz, an opponent of the regime, and afterwards with friends of Schürholz. He was also supported by Emma Haamel, who had worked in the Ehrlich family household for decades.
Along with another Jew in hiding, Herbert Strauss, Lutz Ehrlich intended to escape to Switzerland. Strauss’s girlfriend Lotte Kahle had made a successful escape on May 1, 1943, with the aid of Luise Meier and Josef Höfler. When Strauss and Ehrlich managed to obtain well-forged military identity papers, the escape-helpers were prepared to help them too. On arrival in Singen, they were taken to the border by Höfler. Ehrlich and Strauss had to wait for hours in the brightly moonlit night, until they could cross over to Swiss territory unnoticed by guards on June 12, 1943.