Every stone a destiny

23 Stolpersteine will be added to the 132 already in place in Chemnitz on 20 September. For more than 24 years, Stolpersteine have been commemorating people throughout Europe who were subjected to atrocities by the Nazis. 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, international guests are travelling to Chemnitz as Stumbling Stone sponsors. Among them is the US-American Charles G. Moerdler. He fled Nazi Germany as a child with his Jewish parents. His father remained missing and was declared dead. Charles G. Moerdler is a respected New York lawyer and partner at the renowned Wall Street law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Together with Canadian and Israeli relatives, he is sponsoring the Stolperstein for his relatives of the Mördler and Brandwein families who were terrorised by the Nazi regime. The lawyer's father, Hermann Mördler, will be commemorated by a Stolperstein at Annenstraße 18, where a memorial stone will also be placed for four other relatives in front of the family's last place of residence.

Media representatives are cordially invited to attend this event.

Programme for the laying of the Stumbling Stones

The laying of the Stumbling Stones on 20 September 2016, 9 a.m., Hohe Straße 9, will be opened by Mariam Winkler (violin) and Moritz Möller (keyboard), students of the Municipal Music School. Gunter Demnig, initiator of the project, and historian Dr Jürgen Nitsche will address the audience. Afterwards, dancers from the Chemnitz Theatre Ballet will perform under the direction of Sabrina Sadowska. Andreas Winkler, a teacher at the music school, will provide a worthy setting for the laying of the Stumbling Stones at the last places of residence of those persecuted by the Nazis with pieces on the viola. In addition, pupils from the Georgius Agricola Grammar School will perform a short programme as sponsors at the laying of the memorial stone for Adolf Pakulla. The pastor of the parish of St Mathäus - as the sponsor of the stumbling stone for Ruth Elfriede Speck - will say a prayer at her last place of residence at Ricarda-Huch-Straße 18 (formerly St Privatstraße).

Laying locations on 20 September are:

- Hohe Straße 9, 9.40 a.m., Stumbling Stone for Leo Elend, sponsor: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Saxony, Chemnitz Working Group

- Agricolastraße 2, 9.55 a.m., Stumbling Stone for Adolf Pakulla, sponsor: Georgius-Agricola-Gymnasium

- Ricarda-Huch-Straße 18, (formerly St. Privatstraße 18), 10.20 a.m., Stumbling Stone for Ruth Elfride Speck, sponsor: Ev.-Luth. Kirchgemeinde St. Matthäus

- Rudolf-Krahl-Straße 32, (formerly Burgstraße 32), 10.45 a.m., Stumbling Stones for Gertrud Beck, Karl Beck and Edgar Beck, sponsor: Simon Beck (Switzerland)

- Theaterstraße 36a, (formerly Äußere Klosterstraße 3), 11.20 a.m., Stumbling Stones for Mally van Voolen, Markus and Jacheta Rosenfeld, sponsor: Rabbi Edward van Voolen (Netherlands)

- Zöllnerstraße 6, 11.50 a.m., Stolpersteine for Hermann, Paula Jungmann, Kurt and Judith Jungmann and Ruth Moratz, sponsors: Michael Leutert , Rico Keller and Tabea and Jürgen Martin

- Münchner Straße 31, 12.50 pm, Stumbling Stone for Curt Emil Schubert, sponsor: Marga Simon

- Annenstraße 18, 1.25 pm, Stumbling Stones for David, Rosa and Hermann Mördler and for Mendel and Minna Brandwein, née Wiesenthal, sponsor: Charles G. Moerdler (USA)

- Moritzstraße 20, (formerly Poststraße 31), 2.10 pm, Stumbling Stones for Charlotte and Berthold Steinberg and Marion Steinberg, sponsor: Gary Samenfeld (USA)

The 23 new Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz are dedicated to their fate:

Leo Elend (* 29.4.1896 - † 7.3.1939) was a teacher and head of the special Jewish classes in Chemnitz. He was appointed to head the special Jewish classes in Chemnitz in 1938. The teacher's family initially lived in the Jewish Community Centre, Hohe Straße 9. During the November pogrom of 1938, he was taken into "protective custody" and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. As a former World War II veteran, he was allowed to return to Chemnitz in 1938. There, the school authorities cancelled the Jewish community's funding for special classes. All of the unemployed teacher's assets were frozen. Leo Elend suffered so much from his hopeless situation that he voluntarily gave up his life on the evening of 7 March 1939. He was buried in the municipal cemetery on 14 March.

Adolf Gustav Pakulla (* 14 April 1892) - the merchant, manufacturer and owner of a tricot factory lived at Agricolastraße 2 in Chemnitz before he was forced to live in "Jewish houses". After 1939, he was deputy chairman of the Jewish Cultural Association in Chemnitz and was deported to Theresienstadt on the transport of 8 September 1942. From there, the Nazis took him to Auschwitz on 29 January 1943, where he died.

A Stumbling Stone is dedicated to Ruth Speck (* 20 August 1919). She is one of almost 700 victims of the National Socialist "euthanasia" crimes in Chemnitz. Ruth Speck lived at Privatstraße 18 with her mother Martha, who worked as a carer at the hospital on Zschopauer Straße. After attending kindergarten and an auxiliary school, Ruth developed serious health problems. From 1933, Ruth was cared for in the Altendorf State Educational Centre. When it was decided in May 1940 to dissolve the nursing ward, 300 sick people were transferred to the Arnsdorf state institution in collective transports - including Ruth Speck on 31 May 1940. As part of the National Socialist killing of the sick, the so-called "Gemeinnützige Transport-GmbH" had long since begun to transfer patients from the Arnsdorf State Hospital. Ruth Speck was taken to the Pirna-Sonnenstein "euthanasia" institution on 31 July 1940 and killed.

Gertrud Beck, Karl Beck and Edgar Beck - as members of a Jewish merchant family, a Stumbling Stone is dedicated to each of them at Rudolf-Krahl-Straße 32 (formerly Burgstraße). This was their last place of residence. Gertrud Schauber (* 17.12.1896), the first wife of Rudolf Beck, who was secretary to Rabbi Dr Hugo Fuchs from 1934 to 1938, was deported with her sons Karl and Edgar from Leipzig to the Riga ghetto on 21 January 1942 and has been missing ever since. The family of Karl Beck (* 15 July 1867 - † 23 June 1923) had come to Chemnitz via Leipzig in 1905. They originally came from Prague. In Chemnitz, at Hartmannstraße 40, Karl Beck continued his business as a trader in raw materials, scrap metal and used glass. Eight children were born to Karl and Anna Beck - including Rudolf (* 10 June 1896 - † 5 March 1964), whose first wife, Gertrud, is now also commemorated with a Stolperstein.

The merchant Markus Rosenfeld (* 27 November 1877) lived in Chemnitz from 1911 with his wife Jacheta Rosenfeld (née Kessler). Their daughter Amalie (gen. Mally) was born on 28 December 1912. Markus Rosenfeld traded in white and gallantry goods. His wife was the owner of a knitwear shop. The family lived in the house at Äußere Klosterstraße 3. Mally Rosenfeld attended the Höhere Mädchenbildungsanstalt in Chemnitz. On 25 May 1934, she married Morice van Voolen, a merchant from Amsterdam. The couple moved there. Her parents were able to emigrate to Holland in 1939. In 1943, Markus and Jacheta Rosenfeld were interned in the Westerbork camp and deported to the Sobibor extermination camp on 28 May 1943. Mally van Voolen (* 28.12.1912 - † 3.9.1943) was also deported to Westerbork. Her life ended in Auschwitz on 3 September 1943.

The teacher and cantor Hermann Jungmann (* 6 April 1879) came to Chemnitz in 1939, where he became head of the newly opened private Jewish primary school. He gave lessons in the rooms of the Jewish Cultural Association in the rear building of the house at Zöllnerstraße 6 and at the Jewish cemetery. Although he and his wife Paula intended to emigrate to the USA, they both remained in Chemnitz to maintain the school. Hermann and Paula Jungmann were deported to a ghetto in occupied Poland on 13 July 1942 and murdered there. The Jungmanns had several children, including Kurt Jungmann (* 15.5.1906 - † 16 July 1942), an agricultural worker who had been arrested on 18 June 1938 as part of the "Arbeitsscheu Reich" ("work-shy Reich") campaign and taken to Sachsenhausen. On 30 March 1942, the Nazis deported him to the Groß-Rosen concentration camp, where he died on 16 July 1942. His sister, the nurse Judith Jungmann (* 25.1.1917 - † 22.10.1942), was deported from Berlin to the Riga ghetto on 19 October 1942, where she died on 22 October 1942. Ruth Jungmann, married name Moratz (* 4.2.1908), was also deported from Berlin to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 14 October 1943.

The merchant David Mördler (* 3.5.1865 - † 28.7.1942) came from Galicia and was married to Reisel (gen. Rosa) Mördler (* 18.10.1871). The couple had three children: Sara, Sophie and Hermann. The family moved to Chemnitz in 1909. Here David Mördler ran a hosiery and glove shop at Annenstraße 18. He later founded a hosiery and knitwear business. When the National Socialists seized power in 1933, the family lost their livelihood. Between 1934 and 1937, David Mördler was forced to give up the business and subsequently sell his houses. The couple were forced to move several times in 1939. They were also ordered to leave the "Reich territory" as stateless persons. The order was suspended after the Second World War. In spring 1940, the couple were given a place in the Jewish old people's home at Antonplatz 15. David Mördler fell ill during this time and died on 28 July 1942. His widow was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto on 8 September 1942 together with most of the residents of the old people's home and deported to Treblinka three weeks later. Rosa Mördler has been missing ever since.

Hermann Mördler (* 1903) was married to Erna Anna Brandwein (* 1912). She was the daughter of Mendel and Minna Brandwein, who lived in Gera until 1913. Hermann Mördler was a committed member of the SPD and openly opposed the Nazi regime. A few months after the National Socialist transfer of power in 1933, the couple left the country and settled in Paris. Their son Charles was born there in 1934. The family later fled to Danzig, from where they travelled to England by ship. Hermann Mördler had to stay ashore and later lived in Riga. The last sign of life from him was in 1940, when he was declared dead after the end of the war. His widow died on 8 May 1993.

Curt Schubert, born in 1897, was a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and a member of the resistance during the Nazi regime. He worked with the Ernst Enge group against the war and supported Russian forced labourers. He was therefore arrested by the Gestapo in September 1944 and sentenced to death in Waldheim on 11 April 1945. The sentence was not carried out, as the Allied armies were already in Waldheim when Curt Schubert was liberated. After the end of the war, in the night from 29 to 30 June 1946, Curt Schubert was murdered near the Wißmannhof.

The Chemnitz businessman Berthold Steinberg (* 15.7.1903) and his wife Charlotte Steinberg (* 22.4.1909) had their daughter Marion Steinberg on 16 December 1930. From 1930, Berthold Steinberg was co-owner of Burghardt & Becher, a company specialising in cookware and household items. The business was based at Poststraße 31, where the family also lived. The family emigrated to France in July 1939. The couple and their daughter were later arrested and interned in the Drancy collection camp, from where they were deported to Auschwitz on 9 September 1942. After the end of the war, they were "declared dead" by the Karl-Marx-Stadt I district court.

Note for editors: The historical facts of the victims' fates were researched by historian Dr Jürgen Nitsche. Enquiries can be made by e-mail: JuNitsche58(at)gmail.com.

Questions about the Stumbling Stone laying ceremony on 20 September in Chemnitz will be answered by
Rico Keller, Protocol Department of Chemnitz City Council, Tel. 0371 488-1523.