Project against forgetting: 18 more Stolpersteine to be laid in Chemnitz

On 25 September at 9 a.m., the laying of 18 further Stolpersteine will begin at eleven locations in Chemnitz. The Cologne-based artist and initiator of the project, Gunter Demnig, will be accompanied by the Mayor of Chemnitz, Philipp Rochold, and citizens who have made it possible to finance and lay the stones by sponsoring them.

However, not every sponsor can be there in person. For example, David and Juliette Mendelovits from Australia, who sponsored the memorial stone in honour of their grandfather Bruno Heidenheim. The merchant Bruno Heidenheim (born 1885) was conscripted into forced labour in the autumn of 1940, which resulted in his serious illness and eventual death on 24 December 1940. Bruno Heidenheim's 81-year-old nephew, Till Heidenheim, will be travelling from Lübeck to lay the stone.

Media representatives are cordially invited to attend the laying of the stone.

Note: Following the laying in Chemnitz, Gunter Demnig will dedicate the first Stumbling Stone in Burgstädt. The laying of a further stone is planned in Chemnitz on 8 November in front of the TIETZ building.

Schedule for the laying of the Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz on Wednesday, 25 September:

Start: 9 a.m. at Henriettenstraße 50

This was the Kupferberg family's last residence. Heinrich Kupferberg (born 1882), his wife Frieda Kupferberg (born 1882 as Frieda Stein) and their daughter Ilse-Lotte Kupferberg (born 1926) were deported to the Belzyce ghetto near Lublin on 10 May 1942. When the ghetto was cleared by the SS in October 1942, around 5,300 people were murdered, including the Kupferberg family.

Sponsors: Pupils and teachers of the Dr.-Wilhelm-André-Gymnasium Chemnitz

9.30 a.m. - Henriettenstraße 35

Ilse-Lotte Kupferberg attended school here.

Sponsor: Andreas Liese

9:50 a.m. - Hoffmannstraße 45

Leopold Steinhardt (born 1883), owner of a tricot factory in Chemnitz, and his son Hans Adolf Steinhardt (born 1923) lost their lives in the shipwreck on 18 November 1939 when the Dutch passenger steamer "Simon Bolivar" ran into a German minefield off the coast of England. His wife Erna Steinhardt and daughter Lily Mirjam survived the disaster.

Sponsor: Hans-Joachim Wunderlich

10:15 a.m. - Uhlichstraße 20

Dr Ernst Cohn (born 1901), dentist, had been an assistant at the dental clinic of the General Local Health Insurance Fund in Chemnitz since January 1932. He was dismissed in March 1933 and emigrated to Palestine. He later returned to Europe and took part in the civil war in Spain. He was head of the medical service of the brigades in Murcia. He later lived in Colombia, where he voluntarily gave up his life in 1944.

Sponsor: Enrico Hilbert

10:30 a.m. - Hübschmannstraße 22

Moritz Mecklenburg (born 1880), merchant, came from Lübeck. He lived in Chemnitz from 1907, where he was co-owner of the company E. Adler & Co, a metal and machinery wholesaler, until 1932. He emigrated to Shanghai with his wife Elise, née Adler, in 1939. Life there was not easy for the new arrivals, as Miriam Brookfield reported in the art collections in March 2013. Moritz Mecklenburg died in Shanghai on 17 March 1945. A great-nephew from Holland announced his participation in the laying of the Stumbling Stone.

Sponsor: Heidemarie Kugler-Weiemann, Lübeck

10:50 a.m. - Reichsstraße 15

Bruno Heidenheim (born 1885) was taken into "protective custody" during the Reich Pogrom Night of 1938 and later sentenced to forced labour. Due to the physically hard labour under unacceptable conditions, he fell fatally ill. He was denied the necessary medical care. The father of the family died on 24.12.1940. His wife and daughter survived and emigrated to Australia after the end of the war.

Godparents: David and Juliette Mendelovits, Australia

11:10 a.m. - Hospitalstraße 7

Sigismund Nachmann (born 1907), his wife Bajla Ides Nachmann (born 1908 as Bajla Ides Dressler), their children Ingrid Nachmann (born 1931), Joachim Nachmann (born 1934) and Manfred Gerhard Nachmann (born 1934) were deported to Poland during the "Polenaktion" at the end of October 1938. The entire family was murdered in occupied Poland in 1942. Stumbling stones had already been laid for two murdered members of the Nachmann family in Chemnitz the previous year. Relatives of the victims took over the sponsorship this year.

Sponsor: Unger family, London

11:30 a.m. - Dresdner Straße 38

Georg Landgraf (born 1885), publishing director of the social-democratic Chemnitzer Volksstimme, was an active politician as a city councillor and trade unionist. After the Volksstimme was banned on 1 March 1933, SA men attempted to occupy the publishing house's offices and printing works on 9 March. Georg Landgraf resisted and refused them entry, whereupon he was murdered by two pistol shots.

Sponsor: SPD sub-district of Chemnitz

13:00 - Antonplatz 15 (today the corner of Karl-Liebknecht-Straße and Käthe-Kollwitz-Straße)

Julius Sommerfeld (born 1878), an up-and-coming merchant, owner of a cloth wholesale business and landlord, was taken into "protective custody" in 1939 and deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was murdered there on 16 March 1940.

Sponsors: Pupils and teachers of the Georgius Agricola Grammar School in Chemnitz

13:20 - Hartmannstraße 24

Ernst Enge (born 1893) was an anti-fascist resistance fighter in Chemnitz. His first imprisonment in June 1933 was followed by two years in Waldheim Prison, and in 1939 another so-called "preventive" imprisonment of six weeks. After his release, he was forced to work in an armaments factory in Chemnitz. From there, he continued to organise the resistance until the Gestapo tracked him down and arrested him on 26 September 1944. After being severely tortured by the Gestapo at the former police headquarters, he was driven to his death on 17 October 1944.

Sponsor: Dr Stephan Pfalzer

13:45 - Blankenauer Straße 101

Karla Jäcker (born 1928) was a victim of the child "euthanasia" crimes of the National Socialist regime. She was one of around 500 disabled children murdered in the Leipzig-Dösen children's ward and died on 8 September 1941.

Godmother: Irmgard Teschner

Information about the project:

The Cologne artist Gunter Demnig initiated the "Stumbling Stones" project in 1993, and over 40,000 stones in around 1,000 locations in Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Slovakia and Luxembourg now commemorate the victims of National Socialist despotism. In Chemnitz, the Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime / League of Anti-Fascists, Chemnitz City Association, suggested the laying of Stumbling Stones and found support from the city council and the city administration. The cost of producing and laying a stone is borne by a sponsor. Every citizen has the opportunity to take on a sponsorship. The contact person is Enrico Hilbert from VVN-BdA Chemnitz e.V., Rosenplatz 4, 09126 Chemnitz, call 0371 538 2719.

Thecontact person for the project at Chemnitz City Council is Andreas Liese, Mayor's Office, call 0371 488-1523, e-mail: andreas.liese(at)stadt-chemnitz.de.

Information on the internet: All information on the subject of stumbling stones in Chemnitz can be found on the city's website at www.chemnitz.de/stolpersteine