Johanna Elsa Geissmar (7 December 1877 in Mannheim – 14 August 1942 at Auschwitz concentration camp) was a German-Jewish pediatrician murdered by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.

She was called Angel in Hell by the patients she helped during her stay in Gurs internment camp from October 1940 to August 1942.

When Heidelberg University in 1900 started to admit women, Johanna decided to complete her secondary education and to obtain the Abitur at the Hohenbaden castle in Baden-Baden.

She found refuge with her friend Erika Schwoerer, whose family was critical toward the Nazi regime.

Her friend turned to Martin Huss for help, a Protestant priest and member of the Confessing Church.

Johanna Geissmar was arrested by the Gestapo and was brought to one of the collection centers during the Wagner Bürckel Operation on 23 October 1940.

Johanna Geissmar and nurse Pauline Maier took care of many sick and fainting patients as the living conditions in the camp were terrible and inhuman.

[1] A commemorative plaque for Johanna Geissmar can be found on the building Hochfirstweg 25 in Lenzkirch-Saig where she once lived.

[2] Since 2014 a Stolperstein in front of the House Moltkestrasse 6 in Heidelberg serves as a memorial of Johanna Geissmar.