Gretel Heß was born in Gießen in 1918. She had two older brothers. Gretel was 13 years old; her mother died in 1931. At the age of 17, Gretel was admitted to the Neu-Isenburg Home of the Jewish Women’s Association. At that time, the state health authority of the district of Büdingen had already initiated a procedure for forced sterilization of the girl.

According to an expert advice, Gretel was a premature birth and suffered from convulsions and pneumonia since she was three years old. Their intellectual development, according to the State doctor, was delayed. The doctor diagnosed congenital idiocy and recommended the girl to be sterilized.

Gretel’s father tried to avert the intervention of his daughter. He pointed out that Gretel’s older brothers visited the gymnasium. The Heritage Health Court at Gießen District Court didn’t accept such arguments. On February 6, 1936, the Court took the decision to sterilize Gretel. The court rejected a renewed opposition of his father in April 1936. In a last attempt to help his daughter, the father asked for a shift of the intervention, so that he could emigrate with his daughter.

The guardian of the girl at the Home of the Jewish Women’s Association in Neu-Isenburg made no objections to the compulsory sterilization of Gretel Heß. The sterilization was carried out in July 1936 in the Offenbach city hospital. Gretel was dismissed as "cured" when she returned to Neu-Isenburg. A year later, she left the Home of the Jewish Women’s Association with an unknown destination. In the registration list of the City of Neu-Isenburg, she was listed as "on travel." The further fate of Gretel Heß. could not be clarified so far. There is evidence that she fled to France, got arrested there under the German occupation and deported to the transit camp in Drancy near Paris on September 9, 1942, and then to Auschwitz.

Sources: Stadtarchiv Neu-Isenburg; Hessian State Archives

 :