Henny Schermann

Henny Schermann was born Feb. 19, 1912.  While gay men were more directly targeted by the Nazis, lesbians were considered undesirable as they weren’t adding to the German population and would sometimes be arrested and forced to wear the black triangle for “asocials.”  As a lesbian Jew, she refused to adopt the forced “Sara” middle name that female Jews were supposed to use.  She regularly spent time at lesbian bars in Frankfurt and was eventually arrested and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp.  Eugenics Dr. Friedrich Mennecke labeled the back of her prisoner photo as a “licentious lesbian.” After two years in Ravensbrück she was sent to Bernburg Euthanasia Center and the gas chamber on May 30, 1942 at the age of 30. Other lesbian prisoners and asocials were also murdered at this center.  Prismacolor pencils on 9 x 12” paper.