Stumbling stone project continues in Chemnitz
Mayor Barbara Ludwig speaks at Stefan-Heym-Platz - Laying of 24 more Stumbling Stones on Wednesday, 10 September, from 9 a.m.
There are already 82 Stolpersteine in Chemnitz, 24 new ones will be added on 10 September 2014. The city has been involved in the Stolpersteine project since 2007 and in this way also commemorates the victims of National Socialism who were persecuted, murdered, deported, expelled or driven to their deaths by the regime. New Stumbling Stones are added in Chemnitz every year. The artist Gunter Demnig, initiator of the Europe-wide project, will once again be laying the stones this year, this time starting at Stefan-Heym-Platz 1. In the presence of the Mayor of Chemnitz, Barbara Ludwig, and citizens who sponsored the memorial stones and made their laying possible, two Stumbling Stones will be laid at Stefan-Heym-Platz in memory of two Jewish employees of the former Schocken department stores' for the first time.
Representatives of the media are cordially invited to attend the laying of these and the other Stolpersteine laid in Chemnitz on 10 September.
Information on the laying on Wednesday, 10 September:
Start: 9 a.m., Stefan-Heym-Platz 1:
Confectioner Bernhard Stieglitz (born 1910) and saleswoman Jette Tamler (born 1902) worked here in the former Schocken department stores'.
Bernhard Stieglitz was deported to Poland in August 1939 after lengthy stays in the Chemnitz mental hospital and the Zschadrass state asylum, where he was later murdered. Jette Tamler was 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 Jette Tamler.
Sponsor: Friends of the Chemnitz State Museum of Archaeology.
9:35 a.m. - Johannisplatz:
Dentist and art lover Dr Kurt Lichtenstein (born 1884), who lived here until the end of 1935, moved to Schönau-Teplitz (CSR) in 1936. During the occupation of the border regions, he fled to Prague in October 1938, where he took his own life in the same month, according to his own account "out of solidarity with his arrested wife". Elsa Lichtenstein, who herself was of non-Jewish origin and continued to live in Saxony, had supported her husband financially "without authorisation".
Godparents: Prof Dr Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum and his wife.
10 a.m. - Parkstraße 9 and 9a:
The factory owner Walther Sachs (born 1872) fled to Holland in 1933 together with his wife Gertrud (born 1872 as Gertrud Bernstein). Internment in Westerbork was followed by the couple's deportation to Bergen-Belsen in 1944. Walther Sachs was murdered on 15 April 1944. Gertrud Sachs died on 2 May 1945 in Tröbitz.
Sponsor: Udo Mayer.
The merchant Ludwig Scharlach (born 1899), his wife Gerda (born 1906 as Gerda Sachs) and their daughter Erika (born 1928) also suffered the fate of internment in Westerbork after their escape to Holland in 1933, followed by deportation in 1943. They were all murdered in Sobibor.
Godparents: Volker Dittrich, Andreas Kleppel, Alexander Dostmann.
10.30 a.m. - Eulitzstraße 13 (today between Eulitzstraße 5 and 7):
The lawyer Dr Fritz Gabriel Cohn (born 1885) was taken into "protective custody" in Buchenwald in 1938. Together with his wife Flora Margot (born Flora Margot Bermann in 1892), he managed to escape to Norway in 1939, where they were both arrested on 26 October 1942 and subsequently deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.
Godparents: Prof. Dr Wolfgang Emmerich, Dr Renate Moser.
10:50 a.m. - Hoffmannstraße 52:
The factory owner Dr Felix Max Frank (born 1891), his wife Elisabeth (born 1898 as Elisabeth Mosenthal) and their daughter Hildegard (born 1922) lost their lives in the shipwreck on 18/11/1939 when the Dutch passenger steamer "Simon Bolivar" ran into a German minefield off the coast of England.
Sponsors: Förderverein Industriemuseum Chemnitz e.V., Achim Dresler, Gisela Strobel, Georgius-Agricola-Gymnasium Chemnitz.
11:15 a.m. - Kaßbergstraße, entrance to the former prison:
The merchant Leib Kleinberg (born 1902) was deported to Poland together with his three brothers during the "Polenaktion" at the end of October 1938. After his temporary return in 1939, he was taken into "protective custody" here in the remand prison on Kaßberg, where he took his own life on 14 April 1940.
Sponsor: Dr Jürgen Nitsche.
The former lawyer Hans Mire (born 1908) was also in "protective custody" here and ended his life on 17 May 1940. The "fear of being placed in a concentration camp" had prompted him to take this step. His urn was transferred to Prague on 17 June 1940.
Godmother: Angela Zimmerling.
11:40 a.m. - Zwickauer Straße 187:
Rudolf Harlass (born 1893) lived here, who was a member of the KPD and actively engaged in political resistance. After being imprisoned in Sachsenburg in 1933, he was sent to Chemnitz police prison in 1944 in connection with "Aktion Gitter", where he was driven to his death on 6 December 1944.
Sponsor: Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime / League of Anti-Fascists, Chemnitz City Association
12:05 pm - Bernsdorfer Straße 1 / corner of Ritterstraße:
The merchant Oskar Simon (born 1880) was deported to the Belzyce ghetto near Lublin on 10 May 1942 following "protective custody" in Buchenwald. He was murdered in Chodel on 31 July 1942. His sister Käthe Simon (born 1883), who had last worked as a community helper, was murdered in Auschwitz, where she had been deported on 2 March 1943. His younger sister, the former office clerk Margarete Simon (born 1890), also suffered the same fate: deported and murdered in Belzyce on 10 May 1942.
Godparents: Michael Kühn, Dr Frank Straßberger.
12:20 p.m. - Annenstraße 23 (today corner of Reitbahnstraße):
Josef Tittmann (born 1906) fled from Chemnitz to Poland in 1937, where he had once been born. Together with his wife Herta (born Herta Jaschek in 1914) and their daughter Rachella, who was born in 1938, he decided to flee to his death after the Krakow ghetto was dissolved on 12 November 1944.
Relatives of the Tittmann family from Israel sponsor two Stumbling Stones. Another godmother: Veronika Brandt.
12:45 pm - Emilienstraße 55:
Office worker Hulda Müller, (born Kutzschbauch in 1897), was taken into "preventive detention" after serving a one-year sentence in Leipzig-Kleinmeusdorf women's prison and died in Ravensbrück concentration camp after 6 June 1944.
Sponsor: Dr Kurt Kutzschbauch.
13:10 - Dresdner Straße Clinic:
Franz Molch (born 1871) was a victim of the "euthanasia" crimes of the National Socialist regime. After being forcibly committed to the Chemnitz mental hospital and subsequently "transferred" to Zschadrass, he was murdered in Pirna-Sonnenstein on 12 August 1941 as part of "Aktion T4".
Sponsor: Jörg Waehner.
Information about the project:
The Cologne artist Gunter Demnig initiated the "Stumbling Stones" project in 1993, and over 45,000 stones in Germany and 17 European countries 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 0371-27589395.
info@vvn-bda-chemnitz.de
Thecontact person for the project at Chemnitz City Council is Andreas Liese, Mayor's Office, call 0371 488-1523, e-mail: andreas.liese@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.