Veronika Margarete “Lona” Sattler, née Höllenreiner (7.5.1899 Viernheim – presumably summer 1943 Auschwitz Concentration Camp)

The laborer Veronika Sattler lived with her husband Franz Sattler and their six daughters in Munich from the 1930s onwards. The parents and the older daughters worked as traders and carters. Because Veronika and Franz Sattler were not prepared to denounce a nephew, who was wanted for theft, they were sentenced to several months in prison in the fall of 1942. Because of their underage daughters, the State Prosecutor’s Office granted Veronika Sattler a stay of detention until May 1943 and Franz Sattler was released from Stadelheim prison in December 1942, but just a few weeks later, the entire family was arrested. Franz Sattler was able to escape initially. However, so as not to abandon his family, he voluntarily turned himself in to the police. The family was deported to the ‘gypsy camp’ at Auschwitz-Birkenau in a collective transport at the beginning of March 1943. Conditions in the transport and the camp were appalling. Clean drinking water was initially not available at all due to the lack of sewerage, resulting in the rapid spread of disease. As well as this, the inmates had to do heavy forced labor, while being subjected to systematic malnutrition. According to official Auschwitz camp records, Veronika Sattler died on August 28, 1943. However, to cover up, the SS often falsified death reports and causes of death. Her husband and two of her daughters also perished in Auschwitz.

Her eldest daughter Margarete Sattler was transported in April 1944 to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, where she died just a few months later. Her daughters Emilie and Frieda Sattler were taken from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp and then on to different satellite camps, where they had to do forced labor. After the war, they both returned to Munich. Her older daughter Emilie Sattler emigrated to Italy in around 1947.