Elisabeth Wächter, née Schloß, stayed in Bad Kissingen in the summer months of 1930 and 1931 and worked as a kindergarten teacher at the Israelite Children's Sanatorium during this time. She was born in Nuremberg in October 1911, the second child of Siegfried Schloß and his wife Helene, née Wallersteiner, and grew up with two sisters, Lotte (1909 - 2001) and Hildegard (1918 - 2004).

Elisabeth's father, Dr Siegfried Schloß, was an impressive personality, characterised by a humanistic attitude and great social commitment. With a doctorate in law, he worked in Nuremberg from 1907 to 1938, fought as a sergeant in the First World War and was a member of the SPD, the "Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold" and the "Bund Akademischer Sozialisten". He was also the founder and chairman of the "Volksbund zur Befreiung der Kriegsgefangenen" (People's Association for the Liberation of Prisoners of War), and the list of his voluntary activities goes on and on. His full-time commitment as in-house counsel for the Nuremberg Tenants' Association focussed on tenancy matters. A speech in honour of his personality by the Nuremberg Freemason Lodge, of which he was a long-time member, provides further insights into his wide-ranging commitment as well as his basic social and humanistic attitude.

Elisabeth's younger sister Hildegard characterises her father: "[He felt] responsible as a citizen of the city towards his fellow citizens.[...] Father felt himself to be a German, a Jewish German. He believed in people as such, in the good in them. Everyone is an equal citizen and must try to create a better world, everyone in their own circle, in their own people, so he in Germany. That's why father was active in the SPD, gave courses at the adult education centre and as a lawyer he helped the oppressed, for example he was a lawyer for the tenant protection association. We three daughters were brought up in this spirit: 'Be a useful person in your circle where everyone is equal, give as much as you can. It brings you satisfaction, helps others and promotes happy togetherness."

It is therefore not surprising that Elisabeth chose a social profession and trained as a nursery school teacher. In April 1930, she initially took up a position as a kindergarten teacher at the Israelite Children's Sanatorium for a spa season and lived in Bad Kissingen until October. She lived and worked here again the following year, before finally leaving the spa town in October 1931.

A few years later, she met the Berlin architect Heinrich (Heinz) Hormuth Wächter. They married in May 1935 in Berlin Charlottenburg and their daughter Erika was born in Berlin in May 1937. The family subsequently moved to Munich and lived there until their emigration. In October 1938, the Wächters first fled to Gothenburg in Sweden, then - the exact circumstances are not known - they turned up in the Japanese harbour city of Yokohama during the war and finally reached San Francisco on the west coast of the USA on the ship "Tatuta Maru".

Elisabeth's father Siegfried initially did not want to leave Germany. Although his daughters urged their parents to leave Germany, he hesitated too long. His daughter Meira (Hildegard) describes his struggle like this: [...] "Father didn't believe it could be the last word. 'You have to keep your head up and not let it get you down. Man is not bad, he is deluded, he is wrong, the good in him will come back. I was born here, I love German writers, philosophers, composers, the language, how can I give it all up?" [...]

During the pogrom night in November 1938, Dr Schloß had to experience how much he had given in to an illusion. In 1966, his daughter Meira Jerusalem (Hilde) described in a manuscript how brutally the Nazi henchmen raged in the Schloss family home.

"... The parents lived with their grandmother and a young Jewish couple as lodgers. That night, a horde of 12 SA men arrived and destroyed the entire inventory. The lodgers were terrified and jumped from the first floor onto the street. The man, who broke his leg, dragged himself to the police station to call for help. They beat him savagely. They also hit father on the head all the time and told him to confess that he had contacts abroad. Realizing he couldn't survive the beating, he said yes and they stopped. In the meantime the men had already broken and destroyed everything that was possible [...]

A law that the flats had to be put back in order brought me to Nuremberg. After seeing Father, who was all puffy, blue, red and yellow, the flat no longer made an impression on me. There wasn't a chair out of the 20 or so that you could sit on. The chairs back then were very sturdy and made of solid oak. Mum had put all the crystal in the great room and the good service on the pull-out table to sell. Not a single piece remained intact. The residents of the house came and started crying. I couldn't shed a tear for something like that. I was shocked by the barbarity I found. The silver-plated spoons were bent, the cupboard doors broken. There were holes in the eyes of the oil paintings on the wall, the strings of the piano had been cut. The duvets were slashed and the feathers were scattered around the rooms. Even in the pantry, all the preserving jars had been broken. Father's blood was mixed with splashes of blueberry jam. I will never forget this sight[...]"  ( Manuscript by Meira Jerusalem "Memories of my father, Judicial Councillor Dr Siegfried Schloss", Nuremberg City Archives, F 5 No. 406 in: Festvortrag von Kurt O. Wörl, Schwabach, Der Wahrheit verpflichtet, Erinnerungen an Leopold (Leo) Stahl, Moritz (Fritz) Wertheimer, Dr Siegfried Schloss, 2007).

After the family's flat was completely demolished during the pogrom night in November 1938 and Dr Schloss had already been imprisoned several times, he also realised that the situation was becoming life-threatening for them. At the turn of the year 1939/40, when Siegfried Schloss and his wife were in the midst of preparing for emigration, Schloß was arrested for the fifth time and taken to prison in Fürth without being given a reason for his arrest or a hearing. On 31 January, he sent his wife a final letter from Fürth prison:

"Dear Helene! I have just been informed that I will be sent to Sachsenhausen tomorrow. I have handed in my application to the Secret State Police Office in Berlin for authorisation to emigrate to Palestine. Go to Berlin and talk to Dr Jacobi and Dr Hirsch, or perhaps you can do it yourself. Pick up my things here. I am calm and composed and will endure this time there like so many others. My fervent wish is only that you, too, maintain your strength and bravery as before, so that when I come out I will once again have my tried and tested brave companion in life and not an old broken-down woman. Give my regards to my mother and children, they shouldn't worry too much about me, I'll hold out, we'll meet again. Warm greetings and kisses from your Siegfried"

(quoted from the speech by Kurt O. Wörl, Schwabach, Committed to the truth)

On March 10, 1940, Mrs Schloß was summoned to the police station. There she was given the ashes of her husband, who had been murdered two days earlier.

Elisabeth's mother Helene managed to escape to Gothenburg in May 1940 - at the last moment, so to speak. It is not known whether Elisabeth was still there at the time or whether she was already on her way to Yokohama. Helene Schloß survived the Nazi era and emigrated to the United States after the war in March 1946. She died in 1966 in Israel, where her daughters Lotte and Hildegard lived. Lotte had emigrated to Palestine with her husband Fritz Haas by 1936 at the latest, while Hildegard reached Haifa by ship in 1940.

Elisabeth Wächter and her family did not stay on the American west coast for long; they first moved to Boston in Massachusetts, where their son Martin was born in 1943. When her husband was offered a professorship in architecture at the University of Oregon, the family moved to the north-west of the USA. Notable buildings in the area designed by H.H. Waechter include: Temple Beth Israel (1952), the Noti School (1956), the Mohawk School (1963), the Pearl Buck Center of which his wife was founder and director, Odell Lake Lodge (1966) which was destroyed by fire in 1978, and many other buildings.

Elisabeth's social commitment, which was undoubtedly also founded on the upbringing in her parental home outlined above, also characterised her life in the USA. In 1953, she founded the Pearl Buck School in Eugene (Oregon), an institution for children with developmental disorders, which had an excellent reputation and was attended not only by people from Oregon, but also from California, Washington and beyond. Elisabeth was a respected teacher there and, over the years, adapted the Pearl Buck Centre to meet the changing needs, first for children, then for adults looking for work and for the families of parents with developmental disabilities. And finally, accommodation was created in a community environment for people with severe personality problems and social deficits. Elisabeth Wächter was also involved in founding the local chapter of the "Association for Retarded Citizens", an organisation that supports people with disabilities (see obituary in Corvallis Gazette-Times, Oregon - 26 April 2001).

Elisabeth's husband Heinrich died in January 1981 in Creswell (Oregon), near the city of Eugene. Elisabeth outlived her husband by two decades. She died in Eugene in April 2001 at the age of almost 90.