Every stone a destiny

21 Stolpersteine will be added to the 155 already in place in Chemnitz on Tuesday, 30 May. For more than 25 years, Stolpersteine have been commemorating people throughout Europe who were subjected to atrocities by the National Socialists.

The initiative, launched by Cologne-based artist Gunter Demnig, is also supported by the city of Chemnitz. Demnig has been laying Stolpersteine here since 2007 in memory of people who suffered persecution under the Nazi regime or were murdered.
To mark the laying of new Stumbling Stones, national and international guests are travelling to Chemnitz as Stumbling Stone sponsors.

Mayor Philipp Rochold, Headmaster of the Dr.-Wilhelm-André-Gymnasium Andreas Gersdorf and Headmistress of the Georgius-Agricola-Gymnasium Silvia Fehlberg are expected to speak at the opening event at 9 a.m. at Andréstraße 43. The supporting programme will be organised by the Dr.-Wilhelm-André-Gymnasium.

Media representatives are cordially invited to attend.

Schedule for the laying of the Stolpersteine in Chemnitz on Tuesday, 30 May 2017

Start: 9 am - Andréstraße 43
The Jewish Zuer family lived at this location. After the death of her husband David Zuer in 1929, Johanna Zuer (née Brinitzer, 1886) moved to Gera with her son Wolfgang Zuer (born 1921) in 1933. Both were deported from there to the Belzyce ghetto on 10 May 1942 and murdered.
Godparents: Dieter Nendel (Gera), pupil and teacher at the Georgius Agricola Grammar School in Chemnitz

9.55 a.m. - Weststraße 24
Lilly Salgo (born 1918, married name Katz) lived here with her parents before moving to Berlin at the age of 18. She managed to escape to the USA, where she met her future husband and started a family. She died in Florida in 2013. Two Stolpersteine already commemorate her parents Ludwig and Laura Salgo, who were murdered in the Belzyce ghetto after being deported in 1942.
Sponsor: Dr Detlef Thierig

10.20 a.m. - Hübschmannstraße 12
Mendel Schmul Muschinsky (born 1889) and his wife Louisa Rochla Muschinsky (née Schneider, 1889) were deported to Poland on 28 October 1938 and from then on lived in the Łomża ghetto. After it was dissolved, they were deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where they were murdered on 20 January 1943. Their sons had managed to reach safety in time.
Sponsor: Peter Muschinsky (relative from Denmark)

10.50 a.m. - Schumannstraße 8
The family of pharmacist Dr Kurt Magen (born 1882), then owner of the Chemnitz Adler Pharmacy, who once lived here, moved to Dresden in 1937 after they were no longer able to keep the business. Daughter Anneliese Magen (born 1920) managed to flee to England in 1938. Dr Kurt Magen was arrested 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 they escaped to their deaths.
Godparents: Beate Legler, Johanna Güther, Doreen Vogt (Drehbach), Eva-Maria Vogt (Drehbach), Martina Lange (Hohenstein-Ernstthal)

11.25 a.m. - Clausstraße 64
The Häusler family of five was deported from their home in Clausstraße in Chemnitz to Bentschen (Zbaszyn) in Poland in 1938 as part of the so-called "Polenaktion". Chaim Häusler (born 1891), his wife Frieda Ella Häusler (née Weissbach, 1899), their children Toni Jetti Häusler (born 1923), Isidor Häusler (born 1924) and Siegfried Häusler (born 1929) were murdered in occupied Poland.
Patron: Prof Christine Krüger (Berlin)

11.45 a.m. - Bernhardstraße 34
Alfred Richard Johst (born 1903), a construction worker and KPD member who was active in the communist resistance, was "transferred" from the Hoheneck prison to the Waldheim sanatorium and nursing home in 1933, where he died on 29 January 1935.
Patron: Dr Elke Scherstjanoi (Berlin)

12.05 pm - Lessingplatz 12
Home of the Weidberg family until 1939: Heinrich Weidberg (born 1891), his wife Ida Weidberg (née Grünfeld, 1892) and their daughters Alice (born 1925) and Edith (born 1920).
Heinrich Weidberg fled to Vienna in 1939. Daughter Edith managed to escape to England. After Ida Weidberg and her daughter Alice tried in vain several times to flee via Holland, they finally followed their husband and father to Vienna in 1940. All three were deported to Kovno (Lithuania) in 1941 and killed in the IX Fort on 29 November 1941.
Godparents: Katharina Weyandt, Gabriele and Eckart Roßberg, Michael Lauer (Dillingen)

12.25 pm - Zietenstraße 85
As a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious community, Robert Reiher (born 1902) from Chemnitz was imprisoned several times in various prisons. He was last sent to Dachau in 1942 and was murdered there on 25 September 1942.
Sponsor: Local assembly of Jehovah's Witnesses Chemnitz-East

1.05 pm - Bornaer Straße 24
Gerhard Petzold (born 1924) was committed to the Altendorf State Educational Centre at the age of seven due to health problems. When the nursing ward was dissolved, 300 sick people were transferred to the Arnsdorf state institution in collective transports - including Gerhard Petzold on 31 May 1940. On 30 July 1940, he was sent to the Pirna-Sonnenstein "euthanasia" institution as part of "Aktion T4" and was killed there.
Godparents: Hartung family (relatives)

Further information on the project at www.chemnitz.de/stolpersteine