Harry Ernsthaft’s family lived in very comfortable financial circumstances in Berlin-Schöneberg. They had a maid, Margarete Rönnfeldt, who took care of him as a boy. Even when she left the job in 1927, she remained in touch with the family.
After the National Socialists took power, the Jewish family’s situation deteriorated constantly, and Harry Ernsthaft had to perform forced labor collecting garbage. At the end of February 1943, aged 18, he went into hiding. In March 1943 Harry’s mother Lilli Ernsthaft, who had to work as a secretary in the Jewish Hospital, appealed for help from Grete Rönnfeldt, who lived with her family in Neuenhagen outside Berlin. She was willing to take in the young man. Rönnfeldt told her three daughters that “Uncle Harry” was a comrade of their father’s but no one was to find out about him.
Harry Ernsthaft spent most of his time in the basement of Rönnfeldt’s house. To make himself useful, he gave the girls piano lessons and helped with their homework. He remained in Neuenhagen until their liberation. His parents survived in the Jewish Hospital. Harry Ernsthaft emigrated to New York in 1956.