On Saturday, 20 September, a further 30 new Stolpersteine will be laid and dedicated at twelve locations in Chemnitz. It has now become a tradition to commemorate the citizens of the city who once lived in the same place and who were persecuted and became victims of the National Socialist regime with an annual laying of Stumbling Stones. Small brass plaques on the stones provide information about the most important dates in the lives of the honoured people and mark their last place of residence or work on the pavement.
This year, the city of Chemnitz is honouring Jewish, political and euthanasia victims. This has been made possible by committed citizens and pupils from Chemnitz schools, who have secured funding for the small memorial plaques by taking on sponsorships. Many of them, relatives of those honoured from Israel and Switzerland as well as other descendants of former Jewish families from Chemnitz will accompany the laying of the plaques in the city.
Mayor Ralph Burghart will welcome those present at the 9 a.m. start in front of the TIETZ. The artist Gunter Demnig, who launched the Stolpersteine art project in 1993 and is now travelling the world with it, will be present at the first stations and lay the Stolpersteine.
On Friday, 19 September at 6 p.m. - the evening before the laying of the stones - interested parties are invited to a lecture by Gunter Demnig at the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz, Stefan-Heym-Platz 1. He will talk about the Stolperstein project, which commemorates the victims of the Nazi regime and makes their last known places of residence or work visible. Admission to the lecture is free. Due to limited places, please register at https://mitdenken.sachsen.de/1055233.
Since 2007, the project in Chemnitz has been coordinated by the AG Stolpersteine under the direction of the City of Chemnitz. Its members include the Chemnitz City Association of the VVN/BdA, the historian Dr Jürgen Nitsche and the Chemnitz City Archive.
The 30 Stolpersteine at twelve locations in Chemnitz in detail:
9 a.m.: TIETZ, Moritzstraße 20
The Stolpersteine in front of the TIETZ are dedicated to Erich Jacoby, a former employee of the TIETZ department stores' built in Chemnitz in 1904, his wife Eugenie Jacoby, née Brüll, and their children Gerhard and Marion. The sponsors are Mara Schmied-Tautz and pupils from the Montessori secondary school in Chemnitz, who have prepared a short musical programme for the opening event.
Erich Jacoby came with his family from Berlin to Chemnitz in 1927 to work here at the TIETZ as head of the women's clothing department. Daughter Marion was born in Chemnitz in 1928. Both children later attended the André School on the Kaßberg. After the Pogrom Night, during which Erich Jacoby was taken into "protective custody" and then briefly deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp, the couple did everything they could to bring the children to safety. On 6 June 1939, Gerhard and Marion were brought to safety on a children's transport to Sweden. Erich and Eugenie Jacoby were deported to the East on a collective transport on 13 July 1942. After the end of the war, the Chemnitz Jewish community assumed that this transport was destined for the Belzyce ghetto.
Descendants of the family from Sweden are also expected to attend the laying of the Stumbling Stones.
9.40 am: Dresdner Straße 4 (today the corner of Bahnhofstr./Augustusburger Str.)
The married couple Richard and Sophie Sander, née Grossmann, lived with their two sons Ernst and Herbert Sander in the house at Dresdner Straße 4, where they also owned a furniture shop. During the November pogroms, the sons were taken into "protective custody". Herbert Sander was deported to the Belzyce ghetto in May 1942, while his brother Ernst enjoyed temporary protection due to a "mixed marriage".
Richard Sander died on 15 July 1942 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Chemnitz. Sophie Sander was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in September 1942, where she met her son Ernst Sander in February 1945. They returned to Chemnitz together on 9 June 1945. She died here on 9 December 1950 and her son Herbert was presumed missing. A former cell in the Kaßberg prison learning and memorial centre has commemorated Ernst Sander since spring 2024.
Godparents: Ottilie Wied, Marcus Lehmann and Uwe Lasch, Anja Wartenberg, Dr Steffi Lehmann
10.05 a.m.: Augustusburger Straße 44 (today next to Augustusburger Str. 36)
The married couple Kalman and Hanah Kugelmas, née Bloner, probably lived in Chemnitz from the early 1920s and ran a men's clothing shop here. They and their daughter Margot Kugelmas were among the 335 Jews with Polish citizenship from Chemnitz who were arrested on 28 October 1938 as part of the "Polen-Aktion" and deported to Poland. Their fate is unknown.
Godparents: Peggy Braun, Dr Johanna Rose, Sabine Hochmuth
10.30 a.m.: Uferstraße 9 (today opposite Uferstraße 20)
Szyja Wulf, a party goods trader from Russian Poland, lived with his family in Chemnitz from 1910 and acquired the property at Uferstraße 9 in 1913. During the First World War, he moved back to Krakow in December 1917 with his wife Ettel Lea Wulf, née Buchaster, and their sons Elias and Joseph Wulf, who was born here. During the Nazi era, the couple, their older son Elias and his family were murdered in the Krakow ghetto. Their son Joseph, a trained rabbi, survived Auschwitz and the Gestapo prison in Krakow. He later documented the Nazi crimes in West Germany and published numerous books on the subject. He tragically took his own life in October 1974.
Godparents: Anja Menzel-Rook, private, Dieter Nendel (†)
10.55 am: Würzburger Straße 25
Karl Otto, editor, poet and cultural functionary, was a member of the KPD and the Red Front Fighters' League. His wife Marianne Otto, née Schubert, also a member of the KPD, worked as a typist and correspondent. She was arrested on 8 May 1933 and was held in "protective custody" at police headquarters until 16 May 1933.
As early as March 1933, Karl Otto was sent to the remand prison on Kaßberg for "illegal meetings" and from there deported to Sachsenburg concentration camp, where he was released on 6 November 1933. After being arrested again in October 1934 for "anti-state behaviour", he was again transferred to Sachsenburg concentration camp and released in December 1934.
Karl Otto was mobilised for the Wehrmacht in 1942 and was taken prisoner of war by the British on 9 May 1945. He managed to escape and return home in December 1945. He later wrote extensively about the history of the Sachsenburg camp.
Godparents: Albrecht Geißler, Franziska Fiedler
11.25 a.m.: Ottostrasse 11
The factory owner Louis Goldschmidt, a Chemnitz businessman, was lured onto the street on a pretext during a business dinner at the Chemnitzer Hof in early 1933 and taken to the notorious "Hansa House".
Hansa-Haus", where he was severely abused by Nazi henchmen. His family then managed to take him to Switzerland, where he hovered between life and death for months. He survived and never returned to Chemnitz. In September 1936, he moved to England and founded a new hosiery factory there. He died in London in January 1962.
Godparents: Grit Heinig and Steven Powlesland
1.15 pm: Franz-Seldte-Straße 50 (today Henriettenstraße)
Hugo Benda, owner of a woollen goods factory, and his wife Louise Marie Benda, née Krug, lived with their daughter Ilse Benda at Henriettenstraße 50 from 1932. As a result of the call for a "boycott of Jews" in April 1933, Hugo Benda was arrested and severely mistreated. His business turnover also collapsed drastically, forcing him to file for bankruptcy. Hugo Benda succumbed to cancer in May 1936.
Shortly after the Reichspogromnacht in November 1938, mother and daughter fled Chemnitz. They both survived the war and the German occupation illegally in Brussels and later returned to Germany.
Sponsors: The Prokein family, pupils of the Georgius Agricola Grammar School, Peter Blechschmidt
1.40 pm: Helenenstraße 60 (today Walter-Oertel-Straße)
The Jewish woman Nanny Paudler, née Fröhlich, was married for the second time to Johannes Paudler, a publishing agent from Bohemia. As a result, she converted to the Roman Catholic Church. The Paudlers were subjected to constant harassment due to their Jewish ancestry and anti-fascist stance. They left Chemnitz in January 1944 and went into hiding in various places. While Nanny was hospitalised, her husband was arrested by the Gestapo, but was released again. Shortly before the end of the war, they fled from Berlin to the Ore Mountains. Johannes Paudler narrowly escaped a court martial there thanks to the invasion of the Red Army in May 1945.
Godparents: Anja Thiele, Andreas Georgi
2.05 pm: Gustav-Adolf-Straße 40
Gerhard Rothe suffered from seizures as a small child and could barely speak. Due to his incurable state of health, his father turned to the city's Youth and Welfare Office, which recommended that he be admitted to a mental hospital. In July 1932, Gerhard was admitted to the "Katharinenhof Institution in Großhennersdorf". In autumn 1940, he was transferred together with 63 other people in a "collective transport" and murdered with gas on the same day in the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing centre.
Sponsor: Almut Bothe
2.30 pm: Heinrich-Beck-Straße 1
Dr Helmuth Klemperer was a Jewish lawyer and was admitted as an assessor at the district court and regional court in Chemnitz from December 1925. Together with his wife Ursula Klemperer, née Pabst, and their daughter Edith Charlotte Klemperer, the family lived at Heinrich-Beck-Straße 1 until 1933, when they fled to Barcelona. When his licence to practise as a lawyer was revoked in the same year, he took a stand against the regime in courageous letters to the Saxon Minister of Justice. The couple had their second child, Justus Thomas Klemperer, in Barcelona in 1936. Together, the family emigrated to Ecuador via Prague in 1937. Dr Helmuth Klemperer was naturalised again in Germany in July 1953 and re-admitted to the bar in 1957.
Godparents: Beatrix and Sebastian Schmidt, Maria Wiegand, Anne Brantl, Gert Wilhelm
3 pm: Liliencronstraße 1
Businessman Heinrich Neumann founded a wholesale business for hosiery and glove goods with his older brother Sigmund in 1908. In 1921 he married Dora Hedwig Neumann, née Grellmann. Their first child was born in 1921 and their daughter Fanni Ruth was born in 1923. However, she also died of illness in 1928 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Chemnitz-Altendorf.
Heinrich Neumann emigrated to England in 1939. His wife Dora was probably too ill to join him. In 1945, she was buried in an air raid shelter and suffered serious injuries. Probably due to severe depression and general physical weakness, she took her own life in 1946. Heinrich Neumann outlived his wife by seven years.
Godparents: Fritzsching family, Busse family
3.35 pm: Grünband 20
The married couple Auguste and Bodo Ritscher were anti-fascists from Chemnitz. After the KPD was banned in 1933, they worked illegally. Bodo Ritscher was arrested in June 1933, tortured in the Chemnitz police prison and transferred from there to the Colditz and Sachsenburg concentration camps. Until his release in September 1934, he was deployed there in the quarry commando, among other things.
After her arrest on 9 November 1933, Auguste Ritscher was sent to Waldheim prison for two years in August 1934 following a conviction for preparing high treason.
The couple then managed to emigrate to Prague in 1936. Bodo Ritscher went to Spain in February 1938 to support the Spanish people's fight for freedom. Auguste Ritscher moved to Paris and continued her work in the resistance there. After
both were released from internment, they lived together in the south of France from April 1941, where their daughter Anni was born in October 1942. They returned to Chemnitz at the end of 1947.
Sponsors: Private, Ulf Engler
The detailed biographies and further information on the project can be found at www.chemnitz.de/stolpersteine.