Kate Mueller Slonim

Kate Mueller (born Kathe Mueller in July 1, 1927 in Stuttgart, Germany) was just 11 years old when her life was shattered by the violence of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass”, on November 9, 1938. A well-loved only child with blonde hair and blue eyes, Kate had grown up in a comfortable home with her parents, Adolf and Betty Mueller. Her father was a decorated World War I veteran and respected businessman; her mother was a skilled dressmaker. They were proud German Jews, optimistic that their patriotism and standing would shield them from the growing tide of anti-Semitism. They were wrong.

Terros unfolds over Germany

On that infamous November morning, Kate left home for her Jewish school, unaware of the terror unfolding across Germany. Synagogues were burning, homes and businesses looted and destroyed. Two older boys stopped her on the street, yelling that her school and synagogue were gone. Terrified, Kate turned and ran home, where she found her mother surrounded by neighbours, weeping in shock. Adolf Mueller had been arrested earlier that morning by Nazi stormtroopers (SA) and taken away.

For weeks, Betty had watched as their world was being stripped away. In June 1938, Nazi officials had confiscated Adolf’s manufacturing business. Soon after, the family home on Kasernenstrasse was seized, forcing them to move into a smaller apartment. Kate had already been expelled from public school in 1936 when Jews were banned from German institutions. Anti-Jewish laws and public hostility intensified daily. Nazi flags flew from every building. Signs reading “No Jews Allowed” became a common sight.

Hiding Kate

In a desperate bid to protect her daughter, Betty Mueller arranged for Kate to stay with the Sisters of St. Joseph, a nearby Catholic convent. The nuns, who had long admired Betty’s sewing, quietly agreed. Kate would spend the summer of 1938 at their farm camp in Ulm on the Danube River, pretending to be Catholic and learning prayers to maintain the disguise. For a brief moment, she experienced a childhood escape, but it would not last.

Taken to Dachau

On November 10, 1938, just one day after Kristallnacht, Betty returned Kate to the convent for her safety. Meanwhile, her father Adolf had been transported to the Dachau concentration camp, north of Munich. Dachau was the prototype for Hitler’s growing system of terror, an electrified compound guarded by SS troops, where prisoners were beaten, starved and worked to death.

At Dachau, Adolf endured brutal forced labor in freezing gravel pits, determined to survive. Despite the appalling conditions, he never lost hope of escape and return to his family. Meanwhile, Betty worked tirelessly to secure emigration papers, a nearly impossible task as most countries had shut their borders to Jewish refugees.

Dachau concentration camp

Dachau concentration camp was the first large scale SS concentration camp in Nazi Germany. It was located to the east of the southern German city of Dachau, about 20 km northwest of Munich. It was in use from March 22, 1933 until liberation by American forces on April 29, 1945. The concentration camp was founded by Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS and police chief of Munich, on the site of a former ammunition factory. It was the only camp in continuous use during the Nazis' 12 year rule. It developed as a prototype for new concentration camps and took several special positions.

After Operation Hummingbird (The Night of the Long Knives or Nacht der langen Messer, or Röhm Purge) from June 30 to July 2 1934, in which the leaders of the SA were liquidated, Henrich Himmler enlarged the concentration camp by building a new prison, adjacent to the former munitions factory. The organization and spatial structure later served as an example for the construction of new concentration camps. The Nazi regime presented it as an exemplary camp and as a deterrent to political dissenters. Dachau was a training ground for SS guards and SS leaders who were later deployed in the extermination camps.

After the annexation of Austria by the Third Reich on March 12, 1938, from the summer of 1938 the Austrian Jews were deported to Dachau. On 1st October 1938 Hitler invaded Sudetenland; the border area between Germany and the Czech Republic. Here too the Jews, as well as resistance fighters and communists, were arrested and taken to Dachau. This would continue in every country that the Germans annexed, occupied or conquered in the following years. Many hundreds of Dutch people were imprisoned in Dachau, mostly from the Jewish community or the communist resistance. As effect of 5 October 1942, all Jewish prisoners were deported to Auschwitz in occupied Poland by order of Himmler.

Hope returns

Hope arrived in the form of Max Immanuel (formerly Imanuel Rosenfeld), a cousin and former high-ranking official in Germany’s Ministry of Economics. Using his remaining government credentials, Max embarked on an extraordinary mission: he personally traveled over 500 kilometers to Dachau in December 1938, risking his life to obtain Adolf’s release, a nearly unheard-of achievement at that time.

Liberation

By early 1939, Adolf was miraculously freed. Now the Muellers faced their next challenge: fleeing Germany. Betty, ever resourceful, secretly mailed small amounts of money to relatives abroad, evading Nazi restrictions that prohibited Jews from transferring wealth. She worked day and night on her sewing machine, while also sheltering other Jews in their apartment.

Through courage, determination, and the help of family and friends, the Muellers ultimately secured passage out of Germany, though the details of their exact route and timing are a testament to Betty’s secrecy and prudence.

Above is an excerpt from the story given by Susan Slonim Servais, Kate's daughter