Stumbling Stones Grote Markt 31

STOLPERSTEIN / STUMBLING STONE
for:
Salamon Gaarkeuken
Grietje Gaarkeuken-Beem
Magiel Gaarkeuken

The German artist Gunter Demnig started placing the first Stolpersteine in 1997 in the Berlin's Kreuzberg district.
Meanwhile there are Stolpersteine in many countries.
It reminds the Holocaust in World War II.
A Stolperstein is a concrete stone of 10 x 10cm, with a brass plate on top, in which the name, date of birth and decease and also place of decease is punched into.
The Stolperstein gets a place in the pavement in front of the former house of the victim.
By doing this, Gunter Demnig gives a private memorial to each victim.
His motto is: 'A HUMAN BEING IS FORGOTTEN ONLY WHEN HIS OR HER NAME IS FORGOTTEN'.

Borne was the first town in the Netherlands in which Stolpersteine were placed.
This happened the 29-11-2007.

Salomon soup kitchen
March 24, 1884 (Haarlem) – August 31, 1942 (Auschwitz)
Salomon Gaarkeuken was born on March 24, 1884 in Haarlem as the youngest son of the cigar maker Magiel Gaarkeuken and his wife Grietje van Hessen. The family consisted of eleven children, four of whom died at or shortly after birth. Of the other children, besides Salomon, his sister Elisabeth and his brother Wolf were killed in the war. For Duifje Gaarkeuken-Peper, the wife of his older brother Simon (who died in Haarlem in 1941) and for their son Michiel, stumbling stones have been laid in front of their house at Oude Raamstraat 11. ‎
Salomon Gaarkeuken was a merchant. According to advertisements he placed in various newspapers, he bought up household effects and traded in second-hand clothing and 'Indische Witte Suiten'. On December 2, 1914, he married Grietje Beem, five years his senior, in Haarlem. The couple lived at various addresses in Haarlem and from June 1936 at Grote Markt 31, where he traded in 'just worn women's and men's clothing'. Salomon and Grietje had three children: Magiel (1916), David (1918) and Martha (1922). Magiel was disabled and David lived only 18 days. Only Martha survived the war by going into hiding elsewhere. She remained unmarried and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Haarlem.
During the war, Salomon and Grietje seem to have gone into hiding in their own house. When the current owner of the Italian restaurant at Grote Markt 31 renovated his restaurant in 1990 and made a hole in the back wall of his business, he found a complete room behind it with a staircase to the upper floor. In that room he found a whole package of photos, letters, documents and diaries of the Gaarkeuken family. He handed the package, a whole box full, to the municipal counter in the Brinkman Passage. Unfortunately, it has been untraceable ever since.
Despite their presumed attempt to go into hiding, Salomon and Grietje were discovered and taken away during the raid on 25 August 1942. On 26 August 1942 they were registered in Westerbork. Two days later, on August 28, both were deported to Auschwitz, where they were immediately murdered upon arrival.
Transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz on August 28, 1942
Murdered in Auschwitz on August 31, 1942
He was 58 years old

Grietje Gaarkeuken-Beem
December 12, 1878 (Elburg) – August 31, 1942 (Auschwitz)
Grietje Beem was born on 12 December 1878 in Elburg as the daughter of merchant David Ezechiël Beem and Roossien (Roosje) West, referred to as a 'merchant'. Grietje grew up in a large family with fourteen children, of whom only her older brother Ezekiel survived the war.
On December 2, 1914, Grietje Beem married Salomon Gaarkeuken, a merchant five years his junior, at the age of 35 in Haarlem. The couple lived at various addresses in Haarlem and from June 1936 at Grote Markt 31, where they had a shop selling 'newly worn women's and men's clothing'. They had three children: Magiel (1916), David (1918) and Martha (1922). Magiel was disabled and David lived only 18 days. Only Martha survived the war. She remained unmarried and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Haarlem.
During the war, Salomon and Grietje seem to have gone into hiding in their own house. In the back of the house they had a hidden room with a staircase to the upper floor. A whole package of documents were found there in 1990, which unfortunately have been lost.
Despite their presumed attempt to go into hiding, Grietje and Salomon were discovered and taken away during the raid on 25 August 1942. On 26 August 1942 they were registered in Westerbork. Two days later, on August 28, both were deported to Auschwitz, where they were immediately murdered upon arrival.
Transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz on August 28, 1942
Murdered in Auschwitz on August 31, 1942
She was 63 years old

Magic Soup Kitchen
July 8, 1916 (Haarlem) – January 25, 1943 (Auschwitz)
Magiel Gaarkeuken was born on July 8, 1916 in Haarlem as the eldest son of the merchant Salomon Gaarkeuken and Grietje Beem. Because he was mentally disabled, at the age of three, on September 9, 1919, he was registered as a patient of the Jewish psychiatric institution Het Apeldoornsche Bosch near Apeldoorn. He was nursed there all his life. Until the night of 21 to 22 January 1943, when Het Apeldoornsche Bosch was forcibly evacuated by the Nazis led by Aus der Fünten. All patients and some of the nursing staff were taken away in trucks. A train was waiting at Apeldoorn station to take them straight to Auschwitz. Immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz, all patients, including Magiel Gaarkeuken, were gruesomely murdered.
Transport from Het Apeldoornsche Bosch to Auschwitz on January 22, 1943
Murdered in Auschwitz on January 25, 1943
He was 26 years old