Müller Kurt

Braun, Elisabeth Hoffer, Margarete Müller, Kurt In a joint effort, three Protestant clergy helped a number of persecuted Jews to survive the Holocaust. Their deeds were described in memoirs and testimonies written by the survivors shortly after the war. Pastor Kurt Müller provided Jews with false papers and arranged hiding places for them; and Vicars Margarete Hoffer and Elisabeth Braun hid Jews in their home, smuggled them to safe places and provided them with food ration cards. Cioma Samson Schönhaus had embarked on illegal life in Berlin. As a Jew on the run he was in constant danger, but nevertheless he became active in forging papers, enabling others to survive. In a letter to Yad Vashem, he described his activity in a network of non-Jewish helpers, among them Pastor Müller. "I knew Pastor Kurt Müller well during my illegal existence in Berlin in 1943. A member of the Confessing Church, he would visit me from time to time and bring photos of Jews in hiding, so that I could create forged ID cards for them and save their lives. The cards I used belonged to members of the church who had passed away. I would change the photos and stamp them with Nazi seals." Müller and Schönhaus would meet in the apartment belonging to Helene Jaqcobs*, and then Müller would take the forged papers to Stuttgart, where he distributed them to Jews in hiding. Writing to Yad Vashem 70 years after the wartime events, Schönhaus praised Pastor Müller’s devotion, compassion and courage and beseeched Yad Vashem to honor his wartime acts. Dr. Hermann Pineas, a well-known Jewish neurologist in Berlin, was forced to separate from his wife Herta in their attempt to survive. Herta Pineas was the first to arrive at the home of Vicar Margarete Hoffer in Schwenningen am Neckar after contact between the two was initiated by Pastor Müller. Herta's husband Hermann arrived at Hoffer’s home just before Christmas 1943. He was totally exhausted and in deep despair. Hoffer nursed himuntil he regained his health, and restored his hope for the future. She also brought his wife to him from her safe place so that the couple could spend a few days together. Hermann Pineas stayed at Hoffer’s house until the end of April 1944. "A friend from the church, who was working for the police, had warned Margerete Hoffer that her mail was being monitored, and I therefore was warned not to correspond with my husband," Herta wrote in her memoirs. "Of all the people who helped us during the time of our hiding, it was Miss Hoffer who stood by our side more than anyone else. She was an attractive and gifted woman in her thirties, originally from Graz, from a family that was actually very pro-National Socialist. But she was motivated by her deep religious faith. I have never encountered a person who acted so on our behalf despite the enormous difficulties. She hid us, fed us at the expense of her own rations, traveled to different places to arrange shelter and impressed us with her calm and self-control. She was incredibly understanding of our miserable situation." The Pineases were also aided by Vicar Elisabeth Braun. Brau hid Herta Pineas for two months, in the full knowledge that Pineas was Jewish and that she was taking enormous risks in helping the fugitives. Braun used a blank stamped registration form she had received from Margaret Hoffer in order to obtain food ration cards for Pineas and his wife, and continued to visit them during their stays with different families, always ensuring that they were safe and cared for. "Elisabeth Braun was a good soul, a religious woman who was willing to help," wrote Herta later. "She was a highly intelligent and compassionate person." On September 11, 2012, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Kurt Müller and Vicars Elisabeth Braun and Margarete Hoffer as Righteous Among the Nations.