Ursula Pickardt lived in Berlin with her parents Käthe and Max and her three siblings. Her father was a doctor. Since he was of Jewish origins, her parents’ marriage was classed from 1935 as a “privileged mixed marriage.” Ursula’s brother Wolfgang and sister Ilse emigrated to Brazil and Denmark. Her brother Joachim was arrested for his resistance activities in 1935; he was murdered in Buchenwald concentration camp in 1941.
From 1938, Max Pickardt was only allowed to treat Jews. He died in October 1942. Ursula and Käthe Pickardt lived by renting out rooms in their large apartment. Classed as a baptized “Mischling” (half-breed), Ursula Pickardt was under threat herself. However, she and her mother provided other persecuted people with accommodation and food. Ilse Rewald learned the Pickardts were willing to help through a colleague of her husband, and turned to them for support in early January 1943. She was able to stay with them for a year. Two other women also lived in hiding in the Pickardts’ apartment.
The apartment was destroyed in a severe air raid at the end of January 1944. Käthe and Ursula Pickardt went to stay with acquaintances in the Riesengebirge region. They remained in contact with the Rewalds for the rest of their lives.