Hanna Thiele was born on 16 November 1932 in Peine. Her father was the postman Karl Thiele, her mother Erna Berta Elisabeth Thiele (née Lieke). Hanna had two older siblings (born in 1930 and 1928) and a younger half-sibling (born in 1939) from her second marriage. Her father gave her to the Celle orphanage in 1936 after the loss of her mother. From there she was sent to the mental hospital in Langenhagen. She was one of the few children who survived longer than six months, in fact over two years, in the »paediatric ward«, presumably because she was able to speak and walk. She had come from Langenhagen to the Rotenburg institutions of the Inner Mission in 1938. From there, she was transferred to Lüneburg on 9 October 1941 and admitted to House 25. During her entire stay, she only received one visit, as her father had no money for a ticket. On 9 April 1943, her father came to Lüneburg to check on her. She died on 26 January 1944 at the age of eleven. Her official cause of death was pneumonia.
In her case, there would have been a chance to save her from being murdered. Shortly before she was transferred to Lüneburg, she was given three months‘ leave to return home for an experimental release. Her father was newly married and wanted to reunite his family. The attempt failed. When she returned to the institution in July 1941 at her father’s request, her fate was sealed.
