Sophie Sondhelm was the last director of “Heim Isenburg.” She was born on March 18, 1887, in the small Franconian town of Kleinlangheim near Kitzingen am Main. The Sondhelm family had lived there for several generations. Sophie had four sisters and a brother who died at an early age. The father, Seligmann Sondhelm was a butcher by profession.

Sophie Sondhelm completed training as a nurse in the "Jewish Asylum for the Sick and Infirm" in Cologne. She then worked as a surgical nurse in Cologne. When the Jewish Women's League of the City of Cologne opened the "Cologne Jewish Children’s Hospital" in Bad Kreuznach in 1920, Sophie Sondhelm took over the management. She led the modern house with enthusiasm and with great love to her protégés, so much so that the children’s hospital was soon widely known as an exemplary institution. Sophie Sondhelm's niece Raya later described her aunt and her commitment: "She was an excellent organizer, a great businesswoman, and an understanding teacher."

Just like the establishment in Neu-Isenburg, the Bad Kreuznach home was strictly governed by Jewish religious rules since Sophie Sondhelm was deeply religious. However, unlike Bertha Pappenheim, Sophie Sondhelm recognized the dangers of National Socialism quite early. Immediately after the Nazi occupation, she gradually transformed the childcare center into a training center for young people who were preparing to immigrate to Palestine.

In November 1938, during the pogrom, the "Cologne Jewish Children’s Hospital" was attacked, the inventory and the medical equipment were destroyed. These devastations prompted the Nazi authorities to close down the facility for alleged "littering.” Sophie Sondhelm then went back to Cologne where she worked in a kindergarten and organized a children's transport to Palestine which she also wanted to accompany. But when she alone received an exit permit for Palestine, but not the children, she declined. While Sophie Sondhelm helped many other people to flee from Germany, she did not make use of all the possibilities of escape.

A little later, Sophie Sondhelm took over the management of a retirement home in Gailingen on the Swiss border. This home too was closed soon after, and the non-working residents were deported. Sophie Sondhelm temporarily found a new accommodation at the Jewish Community House in Konstanz.

On November 18, 1941, the Hesse-Nassau district office of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany reported to the Offenbach Secret State Police in Frankfurt:

"The former head of this home, Miss Helene Sara Krämer who belongs to the Reich Association of Jews in Germany has emigrated. We have in her place Sister Sofie Sara Sondhelm, born on March 18, 1887, in Kleinlangheim, Identity card: J, ID locality: Bad Kreuznach, ID-Nr. A-00611, former head of the children's home of Bad Kreuznach, later head of the Geilingen retirement home, was entrusted with the management of the home. We ask that the permission to move be granted to the above. "

In Neu-Isenburg, Sophie Sondhelm had the difficult task of organizing the dissolution of the home and at the same time providing a home to her protégés.

After “Heim Isenburg” was cleared at the end of March 1942, Sophie Sondhelm moved to Darmstadt in the Jewish retirement home on Eschollbrückerstraße 4 ½ on April 5. The establishment was the last stop for many people from Darmstadt and the province of Starkenburg before their deportation. Sophie Sondhelm probably worked there as a nurse.

In Darmstadt, Sophie Sondhelm soon got unto the visor of the Gestapo because she had omitted the surname "Sara" in the sender and the signature on a letter. She, therefore, stood before a criminal judge in May 1942.

Sophie Sondhelm continued to live in Darmstadt for three years. On February 20, 1943, the 55-year-old was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. She also worked as a nurse there. In October 1944, she was deported to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp where she was murdered in the gas chambers of Birkenau.

Sources: Stadtarchiv Neu-Isenburg; Die Deportationslisten. Veröffentlichung der Namenslisten der 1942/43 aus dem ehem. Volksstaat Hessen deportierten Juden, Initiative „Gedenkort Güterbahnhof Darmstadt"; Baruch-Archiv: www.baruch-archiv.de (opens in a new tab) ; Memorial Book - Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933 – 1945 (Bundesarchiv - National Archive): https://www.bundesarchiv.de