Stumbling Stones Beethovenstraat 55

These small, brass, memorial plaques (Stolpersteine, struikelstenen, or stumbling stones) commemorate:

* Leopold Pollack, born 1875, deported from Westerbork, murdered 19 November 1943, Auschwitz.
* Lina Löwer-Pollack, born 1879, deported from Westerbork, murdered 19 November 1943, Auschwitz.
* Paul Armand Jakubowski, born 1904, fled 1939, USA.
* Zerline Else Pollack-Jakubowski, born 1910, fled 1939, USA.
* Robert Leonard Pollack, born 1913, deported from Westerbork, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, murdered 30 April 1945, Brünnlitz.
* Charlotte Reinhaus-Pollack, born 1912, deported from Westerbork, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Mittelbau-Dora, liberated.
* Walter Pollack, born 1921, deported from Westerbork, murdered 31 March 1944, Auschwitz.

Leopold Pollack and Lina Löwer, both German citizens born in Frankfurt, married and had three children also born in Frankfurt -- a daughter and two sons. At some point, the family moved to Amsterdam. In the 1930s, Leopold and sons Robert and Walter owned "Delicia," a popular pastry shop and lunchroom on Beethovenstraat 55. In 1939, Leopold and Lina’s daughter Zerline Else and her husband Paul Jakubowski fled to the USA. Later, during the time of deportations from Amsterdam, Delicia was ordered to provide food for the Jews held in the Hollandsche Schouwburg prior to their being sent to Westerbork transit camp.

Leopold Pollack himself was deported to Westerbork in early November 1943, then deported again to Auschwitz and murdered on 19 November. His wife, Lina Löwer-Pollack, was deported sometime in 1943 was murdered in Auschwitz on the same day as her husband.

Robert Leonard Pollack and Charlotte Reinhaus married in April 1942. It seems they did not have children. According to holocaust.cz, they were deported together on 6 September 1944 from Westerbork to Theresienstadt, then separately to Auschwitz – he on 29 September 1944 and she 2 days later. Robert was then sent to Brünnlitz camp, which provided forced labor for Oskar Schindler’s armaments factory across the street. Schindler hired him as a cook, but his health was poor, and he died one week before the war’s end. He was 31. Charlotte was sent to Mittelbau-Dora from Auschwitz; she was liberated and eventually went to Israel.

Walter Pollack did not marry. He was murdered in 1944 in Auschwitz at age 22.

"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 victim’s with the 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."