Ida Zettel was born on 5 October 1884 in Osten-Hemmoor, the eldest of seven children. Her father, Wilhelm Zettel, was a restaurateur.
Around 1904, the Zettel family moved to Harburg and took over the upper-class Bahnhofshotel. Ida trained as a primary school teacher and was interested in philosophy. Her mother died in 1908. Three years later, Ida fell ill with depression. Her family thought it might be related to an unhappy love affair. She was admitted to Harburg Hospital, where she attempted to take her own life by jumping out of a window.
Diagnosed with »hysteria«, she was transferred from Harburg Hospital in the summer of 1911 to the Lüneburg Mental Hospital as a »house daughter«, from which she was discharged again in 1916. Two years later, she was admitted to the institution for a second time. This time, she was diagnosed with »hebephrenia«, or »schizophrenia«. In 1920, her sister Toni was granted guardianship. She placed Ida in the Dr. Frontheim private clinic in Liebenburg.
However, hopes for a cure were dashed, and Ida returned to the Lüneburg institution in September 1921. During her stay in Lüneburg, Ida was visited by her sisters and, in the late 1920s, by her niece Gertrud. After 20 years of continuous institutionalisation, Ida was transferred to the Herborn intermediate institution on 30 April 1941 and from there to the Hadamar killing centre on 16 June 1941.
The official cause of death given to the family was »typhoid fever«. Even at the time, this statement raised critical questions for Gertrud.
