Danielle Bauer

Name: Danielle Katrin Bauer | Maiden name: Wollner

Aliases: Dani

Birth: July 20, 1941 in Braga, Portugal

Religion: Jewish

Hair color: Brown

Eye color: Green

Parents: Jakob and Elsa Wollner

Siblings: Peter (1920); Stefanie (1924); Ruth (1928); Constantine (1932); Monika (1936); adopted daughters Bianca and Slyvie Hirschen (1945)

Other Relatives: Thomas Wollner (uncle); Marta Weissnacht (aunt);  August and Anna Zimmermann (maternal grandparents); Gustav and Berta Wollner (paternal grandparents); Josef and Elisabeth Kuntz  and their children: Rudi and Inga Kuntz; Karl and Maria Wollner and their children: Ernst and Sofia.

Background:

            Danielle Wollner was born July 20, 1941 in Braga, Portugal. Danielle was the sixth child born to Jackob and Elsa Wollner. Danielle’s older brother Peter went missing during the Second World War aboard a German navy ship. There was no official record of his accident—the family assumed that his crewmates discovered that he was Jewish and subsequently tossed him over board. Danielle’s older sister Stefanie was staying at a friend’s house on November 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht) and was never heard from again.

            The next day, the family fled Germany to Portugal in the hopes that they could immigrate to the United States or the United Kingdom. Traveling with the family were: August and Anna Zimmermann, Elsa’s parents; Josef and Elisabeth Kuntz and their two children. The family settled in Braga, Portugal until 1948 when they returned to their home in Munich, Germany.

            Gustav and Berta Wollner (Jakob’s parents) were sent to Auschwitz were they were executed. Thomas Wollner was sent to Dachau and survived his imprisonment. Thomas Wollner immigrated to Israel in 1950 where he married and had six children. Marta Weissnacht died of malnutrition in Buchenwald in December 1944. Karl and Maria Wollner and their children were sent to different camps. The Wollner family learned in 1952 that the family was arrested in a farmhouse and then sent to different camps—Sofia was the only survivor.

            Jakob Wollner was a decorated soldier during the First World War. After the war, he took to carpentry to support his family. Things changed during Kristallnacht. The family had to flee. Upon arriving in Braga, Jakob went to work for a Portuguese couple repairing furniture. The family let the Wollner’s stay in the apartment above. The family was working with relatives in the United States to obtain permission to immigrate, but as the years progressed—journey to the United States would never come to the Wollner family.

            In 1941, Jakob and Elsa welcomed Danielle Katrin into their family.

            In the summer of 1940, the Wollner’s learned through a family friend that their eldest, Peter, had gone missing from his ship and was presumed dead. The family did not buy the official story.

            In 1946, the war was over and Jakob returned to Germany to search for family. He discovered the fate of his parents and other family through friends and neighbors. The family was safe in Braga. Jakob decided that it was better to keep family there until things settled down.

            In May 1948, the family returned to their home in Munich, Germany. The family could sense a feeling of guilt, anger, and sorrow among their former neighbors and friends. Elsa wanted to leave Germany—it was no longer her home to her. The family stayed in Munich and Jakob took up his carpentry again.

            In 1958, Danielle travelled to Israel to visit her uncle Thomas. She lived in Israel for five years before returning to Munich. In 1964, she joined the Munich Police Department to hunt down former Nazi’s and people who profited from slave labor during the war. Three years later, she married Thomas Bauer, a U.S. army captain stationed near Munich. In 1970, they had twin daughters: Stefanie Ruth and Tamara Katja. In 1974, they had another daughter Monika. In 1976, Thomas was born.

            In 1972, Danielle witnessed the Olympic massacre and decided that it was time to fight the extremism in her own country. At 31 years-old she had the look of a college student. The Munich police department put her youthful looks to work by putting her undercover at the university. Before the birth of Monica, Danielle had exposed several youth organizations as having ties to extremist groups in southern Germany.

After the birth of her daughter, Danielle returned to her undercover assignment for only six months. Someone had exposed her cover. An internal investigation never revealed who broke her cover. But Danielle had her suspicions.

For the next few years, Danielle worked the streets as part of an anti-drug task force. In 1977, her husband had accepted a new billet in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which would take the family back to the States. Danielle decided she had enough of police work and put in her for retirement.

Two days before she officially retired, she was tragically killed in a car bomb at the Munich police stables. She had taken Stefanie there for her seventh birthday.