Anna Hess ran a property management company in Berlin. Since some of the properties she managed belonged to Jewish owners, she was confronted directly with the National Socialists’ anti-Jewish policies. She helped Jews to save their assets and prevent confiscations. She also employed two Jewish women in her office, thereby protecting them from forced labor.
When the Jewish woman Luise Walzer was to be deported in January 1943, Hess hid her in her home. She later took her to Motzen to stay with Else and Walter Frick. Anna Hess also moved in with the Fricks at the start of 1944, since her apartment was bombed out.
In August 1944 the Fricks took in Arthur Nebe. The Reich Criminal Director had gone underground due to his connections to the military resistance, after the attempted coup of July 20, 1944. Anna Hess appears not to have been aware of the part he played in Nazi mass crimes. She helped him to stage a fake suicide.
Nebe was arrested on January 16, 1945, along with Anna Hess, the Fricks, and Luise Walzer. A trial date was set for Anna Hess for April 21, 1945, but no longer took place. She survived in Moabit women’s prison.