Hans Waider and his girlfriend Martha Eisenstädt lived in Hanau. They were not allowed to marry because she was Jewish. Their son Heinz was born in 1938. In 1941 Hans Waider was drafted into the air force. He had previously arranged with Martha Eisenstädt that she and Heinz would hide in Waider’s parents’ garden house if they were in danger.
When the Eisenstädt family were to be deported in May 1942, Martha Eisenstädt lost the courage to hide. She and her child joined her mother Henriette. They were taken to Lublin at the end of May 1942 and later murdered. Only Martha’s brother Robert Eisenstädt managed to escape from Majdanek concentration camp.
Hans Waider returned home on leave from the Russian front in December 1942. When he learned that Martha and little Heinz were not in hiding but had been deported, he was in despair. He offered Robert Eisenstädt his help. In a Wehrmacht office in Hanau, he stole a civilian employee’s identity papers, into which Robert Eisenstädt’s photo was inserted.
Hans Waider had to return to his unit after that. He did not survive the war.
Heinz, the son of Martha Eisenstädt and Hans Waider, Hanau, around 1940. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
