Today and tomorrow, 23 and 24 April, siblings Hannah Allen and William Godwin from England are visiting Chemnitz. They are grandchildren of Anneliese Magen, who was born in Chemnitz in 1920 and was able to flee to England in 1938. Anneliese's great-grandparents, Kurt and Erna Magen, and Anneliese's siblings, Claus and Stephanie Magen, did not survive the persecution by the National Socialists. Stumbling stones were laid for the Magen family at Schumannstraße 8 on 30 May 2017.
On Thursday, 24 April at 2 pm, representatives of the media are invited to meet the two descendants of the family at the main entrance to Chemnitz Town Hall.
Dr Kurt Magen (born 1882) was the owner of the Adler pharmacy in Chemnitz city centre and lived with his wife and three children at Schumannstraße 8. He had to give up his business in 1937 due to the boycott of Jews and moved to Dresden with his family. He was arrested there in January 1942 and died in Dresden police prison on 23 May 1942 under circumstances that have never been clarified. His son Claus Magen (born 1923) failed to escape to Switzerland in 1942. He was deported to Auschwitz and murdered on 16 August 1942. His wife Erna (née Hinzelmann, 1898) and daughter Stephanie (born 1925) were also deported to Auschwitz in 1943. They committed suicide there on 3 March 1943.
In addition to visiting the Stumbling Stones, Hannah Allen and William Godwin will also meet historian Dr Jürgen Nitsche to find out more about their own family history. They will also visit the Chemnitz Jewish Community, the Saxon Museum of Archaeology and Chemnitz Town Hall.
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