Mary Pünjer (24 August 1904 – 28 May 1942) was a German lesbian Jew, who was murdered in the

Bernburg Euthanasia Centre The Nazi Euthanasia Centre at Bernburg (german: NS-Tötungsanstalt Bernburg) operated from 21 November 1940 to 30 July 1943 in a separate wing of the State Sanatorium and Mental Hospital (''Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt'') in Bernburg on the River ...

during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

Life

Mary Kümmermann was born on 24 August 1904 in

Wandsbek Wandsbek () is the second-largest of seven Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg#Boroughs, boroughs that make up the city and state of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the district is derived from the river Wandse which passes through here. Hamburg-Wandsb ...

to a Jewish family. After graduating from the Wandsbeker Lyzeum high school in 1922, Mary initially worked as a saleswoman in her parents' women's clothing store. In 1929 she married a schoolfriend, Fritz Pünjer, who was not Jewish. On 24 July 1940, she was arrested and was interned in the

Fuhlsbüttel is an urban quarter in the north of Hamburg, Germany in the Hamburg-Nord district. It is known as the site of Hamburg's international airport, and as the location of a prison which served as a concentration camp in the Nazi system of repression. ...

concentration camp in Hamburg for three months. The camp's entry register described her as “anti-social” and, as an addendum - “a very active lesbian”. She also supposedly “exchanged tendernesses” with another woman. The fact that she was Jewish was not included in these records. In October 1940 Pünjer was transferred to the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...

. On her admission to the concentration camp, “lesbian” was not noted as the main reason, but only as an addition. Between October 1940 and March 1941, Mary Pünjer was interrogated several times by the Hamburg Police Department for Sexual Offenses. On 15 March 1941 she was sent back to Ravensbrück and assigned to the physician and eugenicist Friedrich Mennecke ( de). Mennecke had other patients who were lesbian, including

Henny Schermann Henny Schermann (19 February 1912 – 30 May 1942) was a Jewish lesbian from Germany, who was murdered in Bernburg Euthanasia Centre. Biography Henny Schermann was born on 19 February 1912 in Frankfurt. She was the first of three children to ...

. He was also involved in the Nazi murders of the T4 campaign and the selection of concentration camp prisoners to be murdered in

Action 14f13 Action 14f13, also called '' Sonderbehandlung'' (special treatment) 14f13 and Aktion 14f13, was a campaign by Nazi Germany to murder Nazi concentration camp prisoners. Also called ''invalid'' or ''prisoner euthanasia'', the sick, the elderly and ...

. The timing of Pünjer's repatriation to the camp coincides with the beginning of Action 14f13 in various concentration camps. However, she did not appear on Mennecke's list until his second visit in January 1942. In 1942 Pünjer was assigned to

. On her death warrant it stated that she was a “married Jew” and “actively lesbian”. There are no indications of a disability or illness, rather, her sexual orientation was viewed as an “anti-social act” which the Nazis used to condemn her to death. Pünjer was murdered on 28 May 1942 in the

Remembrance

stolperstein A (; plural ; literally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. The project, initiat ...

dedicated to Mary Pünjer is in

Hamburg-Wandsbek Wandsbek () is an urban quarter in the Wandsbek borough of Hamburg, Germany, and the former city Wandsbek in the Duchy of Holstein. In 2020 the population was 36,671. History Wandsbek was once part of the county ''Stormarn''. Its villages were ...

at Wandsbeker Marktstrasse 57.

Historiography

Aside from the allegations made on entry forms by concentration camp attendants, there is no additional evidence about Pünjer's sexuality. The historian Carol Mann wrote that Jewish, lesbian women in prison were generally murdered for their Jewish faith rather than their sexuality, and she gives Mary Pünjer as an example of this. However, Pünjer was not the only lesbian to be murdered at Ravensbrück:

Elli Smula Elli Smula (1914–1943) was a Berlin tram conductor who was arrested in September 1940. She was accused of seriously compromising the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, Berlin Transport Authority (BVG) by failing to report for work after going out drinkin ...

and Margarete Rosenberg arrived there on 30 November 1940, identified as lesbians. In some concentration camps brothels were established to punish lesbian women by raping them. Sex with Jewish women was forbidden on grounds of racial disgrace by the Nazis, but rape was not considered a racial disgrace in concentration camps.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Punjer, Mary 1904 births 1942 deaths People from Hamburg Persecution of LGBT people in Germany Lesbian Jews Ravensbrück concentration camp prisoners German people who died in Nazi concentration camps German Jews who died in the Holocaust German LGBT people People murdered at the Bernburg Euthanasia Centre 20th-century LGBT people

Life

Remembrance

Historiography

See also

References