Married with seven children, Helene Reimann worked selling shoes and led a peaceful and harmonious life. But her mental state deteriorated and she was committed for schizophrenia in 1938, shortly before the establishment of the Nazi extermination program of the mentally ill (Aktion T4). She escaped by hiding at one of her daughter’s. In 1949, she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital in Bayreuth, where, withdrawn into herself, she spent most of her time drawing. Her drawings recall objects from her everyday life: shoes, dresses, animals, furniture, flowers and fruit. For many years, she was forced to hide them under her pillow to protect them from the hospital staff which systematically threw them away.
REIMANN helene
