Until 1935, Franz Muss (born 1870) and Ida Muss (born 1871) lived with their mentally handicapped daughter Johanna at their home at Schillstrasse 19. The mother, Ida Muss, died on 19 January 1935 in Eving. It is assumed that Franz Muss thereupon returned to Ober-Hausdorf in the Silesia region, from where he originated.

While the family history cannot be precisely reconstructed, it can be assumed that until the death of her mother, Johanna Muss was looked after and cared for at home. After the mother’s death, that was evidently no longer possible, and she was placed in a care home. There is, however, only little concrete information available for reconstructing her way through various institutions up to her death.

At any rate, on an unknown date, Johanna was admitted to the Heilanstalt Aplerbeck, a mental hospital, and later transferred to another mental institution, the Landesheilanstalt Herborn (an intermediate step on the way to the Hadamar euthanasia centre). From there, she was sent to Hadamar euthanasia centre on a transport with 93 other patients, arriving there on 23 July 1941. As a rule, the patients on such transports were already sent on the day of their arrival to the gas chamber located in the basement of the facility and killed. The 23 July 1941 can therefore be seen as the date of death of Johanna Muss. It was common practice at the time for the officially notified date of death to be falsified in order to deceive the patients’ families and the civil authorities.