Ruth Alice Dunkelmann

Lina: or The Short Life of an Exceptional Girl Ruth Alice Dunkelmann

In 1924, Lina Bernhardt is born in Schwäbisch Hall, the fourth of ten children. The family circumstances are very difficult and the parents are overburdened. Soon the Youth Welfare Office gets involved and Lina is taken to the children's home in Lichtenstern with three of her siblings. Due to a previous illness, the fun-loving girl is slightly mentally and physically handicapped. Without her siblings, she has to move to the Stetten Sanatorium and Care Home in 1931. With her cheerful and sunny nature, she quickly makes friends there - she enjoys singing songs to the nursing staff, telling imaginative stories and recounting her dreams, which are often about family members. In September 1940, the first "gray buses" start to appear in front of the Stetten institution. Numerous residents are transported to extermination camps as part of the "Action T4" genocide program. Lina's path takes her first to Winnenden and then to Weinsberg. At the age of 17, she is murdered at the killing center in Hadamar. In this book, Ruth Dunkelmann and Brigitte Wege recall the story of their aunt. Using letters and reports from Lina's medical records, they reveal the touching fate of an exceptional girl.