Way before the start of World War II or the tragic Holocaust, Nazi Fuhrer Adolf Hitler’s raging antisemitism was quite apparent from the get-go. With the release of Mein Kampf, Hitler’s political manifesto detailing the process through which he became antisemitic and setting out his sinister plans for the future, the Jewish community of Germany grew increasingly concerned. They saw a bleak future ahead of them and feared for their lives and the lives of others. Among them was Anna Essinger, a German schoolteacher who would go on to save her students from the Nazis.
Anna Essinger was born to a secular German Jewish family in Ulm, Southern Germany, in September 1879. She was the eldest of nine siblings, a tall redhead with a kind soul.