Frieda Mudlagk, who worked as a Protestant parish nurse, married the lawyer Adolf Bunke in 1932. They lived in Glogau (Głogów) in Silesia, and both joined the Confessional Church. Their three sons were born in 1933, 1935, and 1938. In 1938 the family moved into an East Prussian country house in Blöstau (now Vishnevka) near Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). The large house was owned by the church. Adolf Bunke was drafted into the military in 1943. Frieda Bunke maintained the house and performed various tasks in the parish. Despite the risks for her and her children, she took in six-year-old Evelyn Goldstein in the summer of 1943. Goldstein’s mother Herta joined them six months later. Other persecuted Jews also found refuge in Frieda Bunke’s home, including the kindergarten teacher Eva Fleischmann, who hid with various Confessional Church members and pastors in East Prussia.
When the Red Army invaded East Prussia, Frieda Bunke fled west with her children and settled in her town of birth, Neuruppin. Her husband did not return from the war.
Yad Vashem honored Frieda Bunke posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations in 2009.
Frieda Bunke’s three sons outside the family house in Blöstau, East Prussia, 1940. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Adolf and Frieda Bunke with their sons Klaus, Martin, and Horst (left to right), Blöstau, 1943. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Adolf and Frieda Bunke with their three sons and a relative (in the patterned dress) outside the house in Blöstau, around 1943. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
