Stumbling Stones Otto Eerelmanstraat 9a

Stolpersteine / Stumbling Stones commemorate:

* Salomo Sanders, born 1889, deported 1944 from Westerbork, murdered 7 July 1944, Auschwitz.
* Betsie Elmire Sanders-Fernandes, deported 1944 from Westerbork, born 1893, murdered 7 July 1944, Auschwitz.
* Frouwke Sanders, born 1926, deported 1944 from Westerbork, murdered 28 Feb 1945, Central Europe.
* Helena Commy Sanders, born 1929, deported 1944 from Westerbork, murdered 7 July 1944, Auschwitz.

In 1924, Salmo Sanders, a sales representative, married Betsie Elmire Fernandes, an office clerk. They had two daughters in Groningen and moved to a larger house here at Otto Eerelmanstraat 9A. Betsie became a housewife/homemaker and put both girls into good schools where they would associate with distinguished people. In 1943, Salmo received instructions to report to his German head office in Amsterdam, and Betsie and the two girls accompanied him there. Frouwke was in the last class of secondary school. When they were taken to Westerbork in June 1943, they arrived with no possessions. Salomo, Betsie, and Helena were deported next to Theresienstadt in February 1944, then to Auschwitz where they were murdered. Helena was 15. The details of Frowke’s fate are unclear. She was apparently deported with her parents and sister to Theresienstadt and to Auschwitz, but she apparently survived Auschwitz (perhaps surviving there until its liberation in January 1945) only to be killed somewhere in Central Europe the following month. She was 18.

"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: Suzanne Matrosov-Vruggink (1), Suzanne Matrosov-Vruggink (2), Suzanne Matrosov-Vruggink (3)
• Biografie Familie Sanders
• holocaust.cz
• Stolpersteine.eu