Henny Schermann

Henny Schermann (19 February 1912 – 30 May 1942) was a Jewish lesbian from Germany, who was murdered in Bernburg Euthanasia Centre.

Biography Henny Schermann was born on 19 February 1912 in Frankfurt. She was the first of three children to a Jewish couple; her father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant, but her mother was of German-Jewish descent. Her parents separated in 1931 and her mother, Selma, took over the running of the family shoe shop at Meisengasse 6; the shop was later forced to close due to antisemitic boycotts.

Under the Name Change Ordinance, which took effect in January 1939, Jewish women who did not already bear a name classified by the Nazi authorities as Jewish were required to add Sara to their names.

In March 1940, Schermann was arrested and interned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women, where, on the back of her photo, the doctor and specialist in eugenics, Friedrich Mennecke (de), wrote:“Jenny Sara Schermann, born February 19, 1912 in Frankfurt am Main. Single saleswoman in Frankfurt am Main. Licentious lesbian, only frequents [homosexual] bars. Refused the first name 'Sara'. Stateless Jew.” Mennecke was also the doctor assigned to Mary Pünjer, who was accused of lesbianism. She was murdered in a gas chamber there on 30 May 1942.

Shermann's mother Selma and her sister Regina were deported in the first convoy to leave Frankfurt on 19 October 1941. They were murdered in Lodz, Poland. The dates of their murders are unknown.