Stumbling Stone ABC-Straße 2

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

* Anna Reichenbach, born 1868, admitted 1935 Langenhorn Sanatorium, "relocated" 23 September,1940, Brandenburg, murdered 23 September 1940, "Action T-4."

Background

Anna Reichenbach was born into the large family of a furrier and his wife. Of 18 children born, 4 died before or just after birth and another 7 died in infancy. Of the 7 remaining, nothing is known of 4.

For Anna, we know only about her hospitalizations. Near the end of the 1800s, she was admitted for the first time to the "Friedrichsberg lunatic asylum". More admissions followed, with the last one from 1930 – 1935 for "mental illness." She was then moved to the Langenhorn State Hospital (later called Hamburg-Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home). The Reich’s "Aktion T-4" to kill Jewish people in sanatoriums and institutions went into effect in September 1940. On 23 September, Anna Reichenbach and 135 other patients from other institutions were taken to Brandenburg/Havel, where all but one were murdered with carbon monoxide gas.

Her sister Mary Stern was deported in July 1942 to Theresienstadt, then in September to Treblinka, where she was murdered. A stolperstein for Mary Stern is with nine others at Isestraße 21. Carl Reichenbach, the brother of Anna and Mary, had apparently moved to Manchester.

"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."

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Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: Hinnerk11
• Stolpersteine in Hamburg: Anna Reichenbach
• Stolpersteine.eu