Theodolinde "Thea" Diem

Theodolinde Diem, who went by the name Thea, was born on March 21, 1908 in Munich. Her father Karl was a tailor; her mother Amalie was from the Bavarian Forest. Thea had two older sisters, Irma and Ella, and a younger brother Heinz, who died at the age of seven. The family lived in Nymphenberg. Their last known address was Romanstrasse 74. After graduating from primary school, the three sisters attended the Pasing English Upper Girl’s. Because the school didn’t offer any physical education, their father attached gymnastic rings and a bar on hooks to the beams of their home and hired an athletics coach for the girls. In addition, each of the daughters learned to play a musical instrument. Thea’s two sisters later said that Thea was not only the prettiest and cleverest of the three of them but also the most talented. She was often able to finish her homework while still at school whereas the other two had to do it at home. At the age of 19, Thea began to suffer from epileptic attacks. Her mother didn’t know what to do, and by then her two sisters already had families of their own. In December 1927, Thea’s parents decided to have her admitted to the Assozationsanstalt clinic at the Franciscan home for the mentally ill in Schönbrunn near Dachau. They hoped that the Franciscans would be able to help Thea, and she received regular visits from her family. On April 9, 1941 Thea was transferred from Schönbrunn to the Eglfing-Haar clinic and from there on April 29, 1941 to the T4 killing site in Hartheim near Linz. Most probably she was gassed to death immediately or after a few days. The official notice given to the family was that she had died of a lung infection. But her niece recalled her grandmother telling her grandfather, “Karl, they’ve killed our Thea.” (text Lisa Wanninger , editor C. Fritsche, translation J. Chase)