The Nazi government executed her husband for treason, he having discussed with the Kreisau Circle group the prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles that could develop after Hitler.

She supported the founding of a center for international understanding at the former Moltke estate in Krzyżowa, Świdnica County, Poland (formerly Kreisau, Germany).

The couple initially resided in a modest house at the Moltke family's Kreisau estate in Silesia (German: Schlesien), then Germany, post WWII part of Poland.

[4] She joined work on the farm, while her husband started an international law practice in Berlin and studied to become an English barrister.

[3][6] The Moltkes encouraged their overseer to join the Nazi Party to shield the community of Kreisau from government interference.

[3] In 1939, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland and Moltke's husband was immediately "drafted at the beginning of the Polish campaign by the High Command of the Armed Forces, Counter-Intelligence Service, Foreign Division, as an expert in martial law and international public law.

These and other meetings resulted in "Principles for the New [Post-Nazi] Order" and "Directions to Regional Commissioners" that her husband asked Moltke to hide in a place that not even he knew.

In January 1945, Helmuth von Moltke was tried, convicted, and executed by a Gestapo "People's Court" for treason, having discussed with the Kreisau Circle group the prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles that could develop after Hitler.

Using improvised notes in Russian and Czech, she obtained safe passage for both families to return to Kreisau from hiding.

When the Poles began to occupy the small farms, vacated by Germans, the Russians became protectors of the occupants of the Moltke estate.

[9] After her escape from Silesia, Moltke moved to South Africa, where she settled with her two young sons, Caspar and Konrad.

[2] In 1999, Dartmouth College awarded Moltke an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters for her writings on the German opposition to Hitler during World War II.

[16] Moltke met with three German Chancellors in connection with her life's work, Helmut Kohl in 1998 to introduce him to the Kreisau International Youth Center built in Krzyżowa, Gerhard Schroeder in 2004 at a wreath-laying ceremony to honor Nazi resisters, and Angela Merkel in 2007 at a commemoration of the birth centenary of her husband, Helmuth von Moltke, where Merkel described her husband as a symbol of "European courage".