Erwin Bernauer and his Jewish wife Nanny ran a photography studio in Troisdorf near Cologne. Their two daughters were looked after by a nursemaid, Maria Meier, when they were young. In September 1944, Nanny Bernauer was ordered to report to Cologne-Müngersdorf assembly camp with her daughter Karola. Her husband accompanied them, although he was not Jewish.
Karola Bernauer was given the task of looking after the sick in the camp. When she was sent out to obtain medication, she fled to Maria Meier, who took her into her home in Lohmar. Meier’s daughter Käthe flirted with one of the guards the next day and managed to get Erwin and Nanny Bernauer out of the camp and take them to Lohmar as well, around 15 miles (25 km) southeast of Cologne.
The Meiers hid the family in the basement of their house for about four months, until neighbors grew suspicious. They received extra food from local farmer friends, the Weegs. Around the turn of 1944 to 1945, Ludwig and Elisabeth Weeg took in the endangered family. Bernauer’s daughter Erna Nussbaum also found refuge there with her non-Jewish husband. They returned to Troisdorf after the end of the war.