Lizzi Buttermilch, the daughter of the Jewish doctor Max Buttermilch, went underground in Berlin in 1942, as did her sister Eva Rosenfeld, four years older. Through the Catholic social worker Marianne Hapig, Buttermilch was taken in by Johanna Oblöser, the director of the Catholic Women’s Association House in Berlin-Charlottenburg, on November 23, 1942 under the false name of Luise Bartog. She and a second Jewish woman in hiding worked in the kitchen at the home, which housed around 250 women and 50 female students at the affiliated Women’s Social School.
The situation became particularly dangerous when Eva Rosenfeld committed suicide in hiding in Leipzig in January 1944, and the Gestapo found evidence with her body pointing to Lizzi Buttermilch’s hiding place. She was quickly placed elsewhere for a short time, and the Leipzig Gestapo could not trace her.
In a 1946 letter thanking Sister Norberta (Johanna Oblöser), Buttermilch confirmed her “great sacrifice, bravery, and kindness” when she gave her refuge on the run from the Gestapo. Lizzi Buttermilch emigrated to the United States in November 1947 and married there.