The attempt to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944 failed in its primary objective, but it did greatly unsettle the Nazi leadership. Some years earlier the Nazis had compiled a list of communist and socialist politicians and activists from the Weimar years who might be rounded up in the event of a deterioration in the domestic political situation. By 1944 the list was somewhat out of date, many of those named on it having already been murdered or died from natural causes, but Hilde Radusch, whose name was also on the list, was very much alive and, by this stage, working in a bank. The mass roundup of political opponents was nevertheless implemented overnight on 22/23 August 1944. Fortunately Eddy Klopsch had a friend in the police service who warned the women of the government's intentions, and they were able to escape in time to avoid capture. They spent the rest of the war years hiding in a large allotment shed in , a hamlet set in marshy countryside between Berlin and Cottbus, that was for most purposes far from the beaten track, and where they had purchased a piece of land when first they got together, back in 1940. They had already used it, in 1943, to hide Erna Hackbarth, the partner of , after she had managed to escape from a concentration camp. However, now they had to survive in it themselves, without any ration coupons. There were occasions when Radusch managed to exchange a bed sheet for meat. They were sometimes able to find wood for heating themselves in the woods, and they learned to concoct a tobacco substitute from blackberries. Nevertheless, by the time Berlin was destructively liberated by the Red army in April/May 1945 they were starving.