Stolpersteine
Stolpersteine, or Stumbling Stones. There are more than 90,000 of them throughout Europe. Together they form a monument to the murdered Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime.
A second set will be placed in Nijmegen on Friday, Nov. 18.
Stolpersteine
Stolpersteine, or stumbling stones in Dutch, are placed in front of the victim's last voluntarily chosen home, forming a tangible reminder of a person who should not be forgotten.
Stolpersteine are square vowels measuring 10 by 10 cm, topped with a brass plaque in which the words "Here lived" are stamped, followed by personal details about the victim: name, date of birth, deportation date, place and date of death. They recall the victims of the Nazi regime: Jews, Sinti and Roma, political prisoners, conscientious objectors, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and the disabled.
German artist Gunter Demnig is the creator of the Kunst- und Erinnerungsprojekt Stolpersteine, a monument to the victims of National Socialism scattered throughout Europe.
Laying of 5 Stolpersteine in memory of the Voltijn family on Stikke Hezelstraat. Photo: SSN
Stumbling stones are placed in the sidewalk in front of former residences of Jewish people in particular who were expelled, deported, murdered or driven to suicide by the Nazis. Demnig placed the first Stolpersteine in 1995 in Cologne. In the Netherlands, the first Stumbling Stones appeared in 2007 in Borne.
They are now in many hundreds of places in our country.
Throughout Europe, there are more than 90,000 stones. In Friesland they are called 'stroffelstiennen', in Belgium 'gedenkkasseien'.
Nijmegen
Nicky Maas of café De Blonde Pater, at the Stolpersteine for Helena Egger and Hildegard Kroon, who lived here. Photo: Theo Peeters
'A man is not forgotten until his name is forgotten.'
The Stichting Stolpersteine Nijmegen (SSN) placed the first 16 Stolpersteine in Nijmegen on April 10, 2022, in Stikke Hezelstraat, Lange Hezelstraat and
Begijnenstraat.
On Friday, November 18, 2022, Stolpersteine will be placed in Ruisdaelstraat, Beijensstraat, Van Slichtenhorststraat, Mariënburg, Daalsedwarsweg and Groesbeekseweg for 27 Jewish victims of the Nazi regime. This is done at addresses of Jewish Nijmegen residents who were rounded up and deported during the roundup of November 17-18, such as the Rosenbaum family on Beijensstraat. SSN wants to involve local residents, neighbors and relatives of the victims in the placement. Individuals or organizations can also apply to place Stolpersteine themselves.
Lina Rosenbaum
The Jewish Rosenbaum family from Poland settled in Nijmegen in 1939. The family consisted of father Julius (65), mother Olga (48), and their children Lina (16), Bernhard (15) and Kurt (11). At home they spoke Yiddish, although this will have been increasingly outstripped by Dutch.
On the night of November 17-18, 1942, Julius, Olga, Kurt and Lina were taken from their home on Beijensstraat in the great roundup, transported to Westerbork and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They did not survive the war. Bernhard lived in Amsterdam at the time, managed to go into hiding and survive the war.
Lina Rosenbaum writes a reassuring bill home immediately after arriving in Auschwitz, possibly prompted by the SS. It arrives in Nijmegen in January 1943. Lina is no longer alive by then.
Bill
"Birkenau 26-11-'42
Liebste Fam: Kersten.
Heute den 25en sind wir gut angekommen und es ghet uns sehr guth. Ich habe nog keine arbeit, aber hoffentlich kriegen wir es bald. Wie ghet es euch? Hoffentlich seit ihr alle gesund. So endige ich mit die besten wünsche und herzliche grüsse und küsse von eurher vreundin. Lies!"