Henny Schermann

Henny Schermann was born February 19, 1912. While gay men were directly targeted by the Nazis, lesbians were deemed “asocial”—undesirable for failing to contribute to the Aryan population. Many were arrested and forced to wear the black triangle.

As a Jewish lesbian, Henny refused to adopt the Nazi-mandated middle name “Sara”, a requirement for all Jewish women. She frequented lesbian bars in Frankfurt, living as freely as she could in a world closing in around her. Eventually, she was arrested and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where the eugenicist Dr. Friedrich Mennecke labeled her prisoner photo with the words “licentious lesbian.”

After two years in Ravensbrück, she was transported to Bernburg Euthanasia Center and murdered in the gas chamber on May 30, 1942, at just 30 years old. Other lesbian prisoners and so-called “asocials” met the same fate. Her mother, sister, and brother were also murdered in the Holocaust.