Like Hunted Prey

Thea and Wolfgang knew each other from the Jewish youth association in Winterswijk. Wolfgang had fled from Germany to the Netherlands when Hitler came to power. Thea was born in Winterswijk and lived with her family above her parents’ clothing shop. When Thea and Wolfgang had been dating for a year, Wolfgang made a beautiful ‘report card’ for her.

Quote from the diary, March 1942:

“Wolfgang brought me something tasty again, such a sweetheart.
On 7 March, we had been together for one year and I hope it will have a happy ending, with us finishing together in Brazil.”

In the autumn of 1942, at the age of 21, Thea found a place to hide in Friesland. A few months later, Wolfgang also went into hiding; he found a place somewhere in Rotterdam. Thea struggled immensely during her time in hiding; she was depressed and missed Wolfgang terribly.

Quote from the diary, 10 October 1942:

“Sometimes you think: ‘why am I still living and how is it that I still exist’.
Mama, Papa, and Lies have all three been picked up and are gone, who knows where to.
Will I ever see them again, and where is my dear sweetheart at this moment?
Oh, let everything turn out alright.
What misery, we are all separated, like hunted prey, no rest anywhere.
Danger everywhere, threatened.
How can this ever be right again?”

She moved between hiding addresses regularly. On 7 December, Thea was given the opportunity to go to Wolfgang, and she seized it with both hands. The reunion was wonderful. They were only together for a few days.

Quote from the diary, 6 December 1943:

“Finally in Rotterdam, a short walk from the tram and then, oh, there are no words for what it is like when you haven’t seen your dear sweetheart for a time.
He was startled to death.
But I will never forget that first kiss from him.
Oh, you cannot imagine how happy I was.
And then that evening, when he came to me. I don’t know how to write it.
But to know that he is everything to me, to know that he does everything for me, protects you completely, that you can be completely yourself with him.
Oh, it is beautiful, beyond words!”

Thea’s diary ends on 10 December. It is presumed that Thea and Wolfgang were betrayed. She arrived in Westerbork with Wolfgang on 16 December 1943 and was murdered in Auschwitz on 25 January 1944. Wolfgang was murdered on 21 January 1945, somewhere in Central Europe.

Theodora Josephina Windmuller was 22 years old
Born: 17 May 1921 in Winterswijk
Murdered: 28 January 1944, Auschwitz

Wolfgang Maas was 24 years old
Born: 20 February 1920 in Buer, Germany
Murdered: 21 January 1945, Central Europe

Thea kept a diary that runs from 20 March 1939 to 10 December 1943. After the war, the diary was returned to the family, along with 60 letters from Wolfgang to Thea. Both of Thea’s parents, Jozeph and Rika Windmuller, and her eldest sister Lies, were all murdered in Auschwitz on 19 October 1942. Two of Thea’s sisters, Martha and Betty, survived the war. Wolfgang’s parents fled to Brazil in the late 1930s and survived the war.

Source: Wolfgang Maas Certificate, Mirjam Schwarz, Winterswijk Synagogue