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The five member family of the master shoemaker, Willy Katz, were allowed to emigrate, still by legal means, in 1940, through Russia, direction Wladiwostok, from there in a Japanese steamer across the Pacific Ocean to Los Angeles and from there to Quito, Ecuador. As the then 10-year old Herbert Krause still remembered in 2004, his father Johannes, who was the master welder in Nentershausen, and at the same time had a taxi, took Willy Katz, his wife and three children in the “darkness of the night and through dense fog” with his car to the train station in Eichenberg. One year later Willy Katz had his father, Jakob Katz II, and the father’s sister, Jettchen, follow him.

Ecuador was one of the few countries that allowed immigration of Jewish refugees. About 4000 were allowed into the country. To demonstrate means of survival, the head of each family had to produce between 400 and 1000 US dollars. Only agricultural or industrial craft activities were allowed.

The communication received by his uncle, Wolf Katz, in Nordhausen that made possible that Willy Katz and his family in Nentershausen could undertake the lifesaving exit in October 1940.