Stumbling Stone Rue Vinave d’Ile 16

This small, brass, memorial plaque (Stolperstein or stumbling stone) commemorates:

* Aron Wolfson, born 1906 in Poland, arrested 26 August 1942, interned/held at Malines, deported 1942 Auschwitz, murdered.

Background

Aron Wolfson was a merchant, married to Elza née Sluchny (born 1908). Their daughter, Anny Augusta Wolfson, was born in August 1942, just 3 weeks before Aron was arrested.

Each of the 3 Wolfsons was on a Department of the Police list of foreign Jews sent to the Dannes-Camiers labor camp for matters concerning foreigners. This little-known camp was named for two adjacent villages in northern France. Prisoners worked on the Nazis’ Atlantic Wall fortification along the coasts. Dannes and Camiers villages shared a railway station, from which prisoners were deported to Auschwitz via Malines (Mechelen), Belgium.

The Wolfsons’ daughter Anny survived (and provided testimony about her father Aron to Yad Vashem in 1994). No information was found on how she survived nor on the fate of her mother (Aron’s wife), Elza Wolfson née Sluchny.

"Stolpersteine" is an art project for Europe by Gunter Demnig to commemorate victims of National Socialism (Nazism). Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) are small, 10x10cm brass plaques placed in the pavement in front of the last voluntary residence of (mostly Jewish) victims who were murdered by the Nazis. Each plaque is engraved with the victim’s name, date of birth, and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death. By doing this, Gunter Demnig gives an individual memorial to each victim. One stone, one name, one person. He cites the Talmud: "A human being is forgotten only when his or her name is forgotten."

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Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: LiveFromLiège
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• USHMM Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database
• Organisation Todt (OT)
• Cercle d’étude: Dannes-Camiers
• Stolpersteine.eu