The areas of Essen that we walked through during a visit in 2020 were quite modern, so we were quite surprised when we stumbled across, well Karen spotted them first, a couple of stolpersteine (literally ‘stumbling stones or blocks’). A stolperstein is a small, inscribed brass plaque inserted in the pavement to commemorate a person who once lived in the adjacent house.
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| Two stolpersteine |
It’s a sombre subject but as it’s an important part of world history I feel it must be mentioned. Each person represented by a stolperstein died under Nazi rule because of their ethnicity, belief or some other ‘apparent’ social inadequacy. As there are over 400 stolpersteine in Essen it wasn’t surprising that we came across these two.
Gunter Demnig, a German artist, started installing these brass plaques in 1996 and worldwide there are now over 75,000. Most of them are in Europe, mainly in Germany, and around 440 new ones are added each month. The hand chiselled inscriptions include the name of the victim as well as how and where they died. We feel the maxim he uses as the reason for their production rather poignant, “A person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten”. For further information on Gunter Demnig and the stolpersteine click here or to read an article about them in the Guardian click here.
Before moving on I will mention the two people commemorated in the picture above, to give an idea of the history. Aron Leib Steuer was born in 1900 and was one of the Polish Jews impacted by Polenaktion where tens of thousands were expelled from Germany in 1938. As there were so many, the Polish Government wouldn’t allow most of them into the country, so they ended up in refugee camps on the border; Aron was in a camp in Bentschen (Zbaszyn in Polish). In October 1939 he was arrested and held in Dachau concentration camp until he was killed on 7 August 1942.
Klara Steuer was held in various psychiatric hospitals and on 11 February 1941 was moved to Hadamar where she was killed under the Aktion-T4 program of involuntary euthanasia of the mentally and physically disabled.
There now follows a few more harrowing stories of some of the stolpersteine we came across in Essen and at the end, those we have found in other places since. We totally understand if you don't want to read any further but feel it important to include this section for our own thoughts about such unimaginable atrocities.
Dr Rosenberg was banned from practising in 1938 and died on 20 May 1955 after escaping to Uruguay in 1939 with his wife Anna and son Werner.
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Georg Friedmann committed suicide when his wife and young children (aged 6 & 9) were deported to the Izica ghetto in Poland.
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The Bachrachs were just over 60 years old when they died in the Izica ghetto in Poland. Minna Benderski was 77 and Erich Langer 60 when they were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the town of Terezin in Czechoslovakia.
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Doctor Heinemann and his wife Anna died during one of the pogroms in Essen during 1938 when many Jews were massacred.
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We can find no further information on Selma Steinberg (neé Kaufmann), other than she and her sister (?), Henriette, died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic.
Again, not a lot of information on the Finger family other than the parents and their daughter escaped to the States.
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Grevenmacher (Luxembourg)
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Hamburg
Saarburg
This family of a brother and two sisters ran a guest house in Saarburg but were rounded up and deported to Auschwitz where they were all killed on 3 March 1943.
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