On Wednesday, 6 May, a further 19 Stolpersteine will be laid and dedicated at eight different locations in Chemnitz. These will commemorate the people who once lived in the city who were persecuted and became victims of the National Socialist regime. Small brass plaques on the stones provide information about the most important dates in the lives of the people honoured and mark their last place of residence or work on the pavement.
At 10.30 a.m., at Eulitzstraße 7, Mayor Ralph Burghart will open the ceremony and welcome many relatives and friends of Jewish families who once lived in Chemnitz. Some of them have travelled a long way from Israel, Canada, the UK, the USA and Switzerland to be present on this day.
The laying of the Stumbling Stones was made possible by committed citizens, associations and pupils from Chemnitz schools, who also secured the funding by sponsoring the small memorial plaques. Many of them will accompany the laying of the stones in the city centre.
The 19 Stolpersteine at eight locations in Chemnitz in detail:
10.30 a.m., Eulitzstraße 7
The ceremony begins with the laying of a Stolperstein for Hanna Luise Sachs, née Cohn, the eldest of three children of lawyer Dr Fritz Cohn and his wife Margot. Since 2014, two stumbling stones at the family's former home in Eulitzstraße have commemorated the couple's tragic fate. Now a memorial stone has been added for daughter Hanna, who fled to Argentina in April 1939, where she lived until her death.
Together with her sister Hilla, Hanna attended the girls' secondary school in Chemnitz until 1937 and later studied at the orthodox Jewish housekeeping school in Frankfurt (Main). Her fiancé, Gerhard Sachs, had found a job in Argentina and was able to leave the country for Buenos Aires in April 1938. Hanna gave birth to daughter Tana in Chemnitz on 28 December 1938 and, together with her daughter, followed her husband in April 1939.
followed her husband to Argentina in April 1939, where the couple lived until their deaths. According to Tana Sachs, Hanna Sachs died in a nursing home after a long and serious illness.
Relatives: Tana Sachs will be travelling from Canada for the laying of the Stumbling Stone.
Sponsors: Teresa Pinheiro and Nomi Drachinsky
11.20 a.m., Agricolastrasse 63
Carl Leder, born on 23 August 1888 in Berlin, was a Romanian citizen.
His parents had left the country due to the growing persecution of Jews. Carl Leder worked in
worked for the Siegfried Peretz hosiery factory in Chemnitz.
He married Margarete Plaut here in 1920 and their daughter Lee Wilma was born in July 1925. When Siegfried Peretz OHG was transformed into a public limited company at the end of 1921, Carl Leder was elected to the board alongside Albert Peretz, the son of the company founder. His professional advancement allowed the family to lead a prosperous life. However, when the Nazis came to power, a period of disenfranchisement and persecution began.
After Carl Leder was forced out of Siegfried Peretz AG in 1937, he prepared his "emigration", which was finally authorised in April 1939. He initially stayed in England, where Gretl Leder was only able to follow him four months later due to illness. When the Second World War broke out, they were initially spared internment as "enemy aliens", but Carl Leder was later interned for several months at Camp Hutchinson in Douglas (Isle of Man). He died on 8 August 1944 as a result of the deprivations.
In July 1947, Gretl Leder moved in with her sister Hedwig Bonn in New York. 15 years later, she moved in with her daughter Lee in Los Angeles. Gretl Leder died there in 1982.
Relatives: Carolin Guttman (granddaughter of Carl and Margarete Leder) has travelled from the USA and will be present at the ceremony.
Sponsors: Ute and Peter Krebs and private
12.10 pm, Katharinenstraße 10
Heinrich Frank was born in Chemnitz as the eldest son of the jersey manufacturer Julius Frank. He was one of the Jewish soldiers who took part in the Second World War and enlisted for service at the front in September 1914.
Heinrich Frank married Rosa Frank in May 1922. The young couple lived at Katharinenstraße 2 and their two children Leonore and Erwin Konrad were born in the State Women's Hospital in Chemnitz.
The Nazi takeover in 1933 meant that factory director Heinrich Frank had to "resign" from Marschel Frank Sachs AG as early as March 1934. However, he remained a shareholder until 1937/38. Soon afterwards, the family moved to Berlin. During the November pogrom of 1938, he was arrested there and deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was released on 23 December 1938. In March 1939, Heinrich Frank and his family were allowed to emigrate to Palestine.
Heinrich Frank died in Israel in May 1955. His widow Rosa moved to the USA in 1958, where her children had already been living for several years. She died in New York in October 1982. Her daughter Leonore Schoenbeck, twice widowed, lived near New York. Daniel Feldmann, her son from her first marriage, has lived with his family in Australia since 1971.
Erwin Frank has been married to Ursula Brauer since 1954. The couple have two children: Ronald and Diane. The siblings visited Chemnitz in 1997 for the "6th Days of Jewish Culture".
Relatives: Ron Frank (son of Erwin Konrad Frank), Diane Wenick (daughter of Erwin Konrad Frank) and Daniel Feldmann (son of Leonore Frank) have travelled with their families to take part in the ceremony.
Sponsors: Sven Hösel and Jana Schneider, Christin Schneider and Ron Schneider, Evangelisches Schulzentrum Leukersdorf, Astrid Ahnert
1 p.m., Stollberger Straße 38
The merchant Sally Spiro lived in Bremerhaven until April 1921, where there had also been a Schocken department stores' since 1903, opened by Joseph Schocken and Jakob Spiro, Sally's uncle. From May 1921, he supported the Schocken brothers in Chemnitz in setting up a purchasing centre for the wholesale trade. He established himself professionally here by founding his own stocking factory under the name "Brüder Spiro Strumpffabrik" in 1925. After their marriage in 1927, his wife Nina Spiro, née Beck, gave birth to their son Werner Adolf Michael in 1929. With the establishment of Nazi rule, Sally Spiro was forced to sell the factory property, which also involved the transfer of the company.
In May 1938, the family embarked on the arduous journey to New Zealand via England and Canada, where they lived in Christchurch from then on. Michael Spiro later moved to London, where he lived until his death on 5 October 2025*.
Sponsors: private, private, Beate Schwabe and Dr Susi-Hilde Michael
1.40 pm, Beckerstrasse 13
Gerhard Frank was born in Chemnitz as the third son of the jersey manufacturer Julius Frank. From 1903 to 1910, he attended the Realgymnasium in Chemnitz, which was still located on Reitbahnstraße at the time. In December 1922, Gerhard Frank married Elisabeth Goeritz and two sons were born: Günther Konrad and Horst Heinz.
Following the early death of Horst Goeritz in 1925, Gerhard Frank was appointed sole director of Gebr. Goeritz Aktiengesellschaft and was also chairman and sports director of the Jewish sports club Schild. During the November pogrom of 1938, he was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp for a month. In January 1939, he had to give up his seat on the board of directors as part of the "Aryanisation" of Gebr.
Elisabeth Frank had left Germany for Cuba in the summer of 1938, from where she travelled to the USA in December 1938. In the spring of 1939, Gerhard Frank was able to emigrate to Holland with his sons. Thanks to their mother's efforts, Horst and Günther were also able to emigrate to the USA in July 1939.
Gerhard Frank, who had to wait for an "immigration quota number", remained behind in Holland alone. After the Nazi occupation of the country, he was interned in the Westerbork transit camp (Vreemdelingen Camp). He survived and reunited with his family in New York on 20 July 1946.
Gerhard Frank died there in November 1972, Lissi Frank survived him by 14 years. Günther Konrad lived in New York until his death. Horst Heinz married Rosalyn Morris in Miami (Florida) in 1954, with whom he had two children, Wayne Leslie and Nancy Eileen.
Relatives: Wayne Frank (son of Horst Heinz Frank) and Nancy Frank (daughter of Horst Heinz Frank) have travelled from the USA with their families and will attend the ceremony.
Godparents: Kirsti Brand-Wiedbusch, Ingo Kübeck, Franziska Sieber and Jan Sieber, Omas gegen Rechts Chemnitz
3 pm, Hohe Straße 9
Else Wolffheim married the merchant Hermann Schendel, who owned a men's and boys' clothing shop in Chemnitz at Lange Straße 22, on 9 June 1913 in Berlin. The couple had two daughters: Gerda and Margit Ursula. The family lived at Stollberger Straße 35 for a while before finding a suitable flat at Hohe Straße 9 around 1934.
When Hermann Schendel died in March 1936, Else Schendel dissolved the business and sold the premises in autumn 1939. She subsequently moved to Berlin-Charlottenburg, where her daughter Margit Ursula had lived since June 1937.
On 5 September 1942, Else Schendel was deported to the ghetto in Riga on the 19th Osttransport along with 800 other people. She was murdered three days later. After 1945, her surviving daughters had an inscription added to their father's gravestone in memory of their mother Else Schendel, née Wolffheim.
Relatives: Mona Kellnerber and Nina Meyerhoff (granddaughters of Else Schendel) will attend the ceremony.
Godparents: Franka and Daniel Dost
3.30 pm, Zwickauer Straße 36
The merchant Alfred Ascher was one of the many Jewish shoe traders in Chemnitz. His shoe shop was located at Markt 14/15. He had completed his commercial apprenticeship in his parents' shoe shop, which had to close in 1928 as a result of the global economic crisis.
After his arrest in the November pogrom of 1938 and transfer to Buchenwald concentration camp, he decided to leave the country with his wife Edith Ascher, née Werner, after his release in January 1939. They moved to Belgium and received entry visas to the USA four months before the Wehrmacht invaded Belgium. They reached New York on the passenger ship "Westernland" on 3 February 1940. From there, the couple travelled to East Orange (New Jersey), where a cousin lived. The couple had a daughter, Sonia Claire, who was born in 1942. Later the family lived in Manchester, Hillsborough (New Hampshire).
Relatives: Sonia Ascher (daughter of Alfred and Edith Ascher) has travelled from the USA and will attend the ceremony.
Sponsors: Maret Wolff / Metropol cinema, Rena Lippmann
4 pm, Brückenstraße 6
In 2012, three Stolpersteine were laid in memory of Dr Alfred Lachmann, his wife Helene and their son Werner at the site where the multi-storey commercial and residential building once stood, in which the family lived for over 20 years.
The daughters had succeeded in emigrating at an early age. In 1938, Ilse Ruth Lachmann was able to move to England as a domestic servant, where she gave birth to her son Michael in 1942. Due to her work for the British civil authorities, she had to place her son in a home in Liverpool and lost contact with him. In 1950, Ilse emigrated to Australia in the hope of finding her son there, who grew up with Australian adoptive parents. Her hopes were not realised and she died in Redcliffe in 1998. Son Michael only learnt of his true origins in 2011. He visited his mother's birthplace and the stumbling blocks in honour of his family in 2022.
Eva Irene Lachmann had also emigrated to England in 1938. She emigrated to Palestine in 1945 and changed her first name to Chava. She had two children with her husband Wilhelm Shimon Feuchtwanger: Tamar and Amos. Chava remained in contact with the Jewish community in Karl-Marx-Stadt until the 1960s. She lived until the end in the city of Ramat Gan, where she died on 25 May 2005.
Relatives: Michael Lachmann (son of Ilse Ruth Lachmann) has travelled from Australia and will be present at the ceremony.
Sponsors: Pupils of the Georgius-Agricola-Gymnasium Chemnitz, Christina Michel
www.chemnitz.de/stolpersteine
*changedon 05/05/2026
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