Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
Kalman, Chana and Margot Kugelmas
Kalman Kugelmas
Born: 18 October 1902
Died: after 28 October 1938
Chana Kugelmas, née Bloner
Born: 29 January 1902
Died: after 28 October 1938
Margot Kugelmas
Born: 30 September 1933
Died: after 28 October 1938
Installation location:
Augustusburger Straße 44
Stumbling stone laying on:
20 September 2025
Photos of the laying of the Stumbling Stones
Life path
Mr and Mrs Kugelmas and their daughter Margot were among the 335 Jews of Polish nationality from Chemnitz who were deported to the Polish border on 28 October 1938.
The merchant Kalman Kugelmas had been living in the German Empire since 1909. He came from the settlement of Jablonow, whilst his wife Chana (the Hebrew form of Hanah) Bloner came from the town of Sędziszów. Both places were part of the Austrian Crown Land of Galicia until 1918. Following the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the families became Polish citizens.
Very little reliable information is available about the Kugelmas family. It is thought that the couple had been living in Chemnitz since the late 1920s. They had set up a business selling men’s clothing. They lived at 44 Augustusburger Straße. The shop was initially located at 1a Rochlitzer Straße before moving to 12 Oststraße.
Kurt Kugelmas, as he was known in business circles, was a passionate chess player. He was a member of the Jewish Chess Club in Chemnitz, which was founded in 1927.
The couple had one daughter. Margot was born at the State Maternity Hospital in Chemnitz. The family last lived at 18 Apollostraße, which later became one of the largest ‘Jewish houses’ in the city. Whether Margot, like her cousins Edith and Ruth Friesel, who were the same age, was also intended to start school in the special Jewish classes at the Chemnitz primary school at Mühlenstraße 34 can only be surmised.
On 28 October 1938, Mr and Mrs Kugelmas and their five-year-old daughter were arrested as part of the ‘Poland Action’ and transported by the Reichsbahn to their supposed homeland, where they initially stayed in Bentschen (Zbaszyn). Their subsequent fate is unknown. The textile shop was subsequently wound up.
Author: Dr Jürgen Nitsche
This is where the Stolpersteine for Kalman, Chana and Margot Kugelmas are located:
Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
It is a project against forgetting: stumbling stones have been laid in Chemnitz every year since 2007.
Embedded in the pavement, the memorial stones commemorate the tragic fates of fellow citizens who were persecuted, deported, murdered or driven to their deaths during the National Socialist regime.
more