Stumbling Stones Hofstraat 69

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

* Maurits van Gelderen, born 1889, labor camp 15 July 1942, murdered 26 October 1942, Auschwitz.
* Arie van Gelderen, born 1905, labor camp 15 July 1942, murdered 1 December 1942, Auschwitz.

The brothers Maurits and Arie van Gelderen were both merchants who lived at the same address in Kampen. They were sent to labor camps (it is unknown if they were at the same camp) in July 1942. Unknown to them, this was a first step towards their deaths: the Nazis used it to separate and isolate ~7,500 men from their families. On the night of 2/3 October all the Jewish laborers were taken to Westerbork transit camp. In that month, nine trains deported over 12,000 Jews from Westerbork to Auschwitz. Maurits and Arie did not survive.

Their mother died in 1917 when Arie was 12 years old. Their father, Ezechiël van Gelderen, who also was living in Kampen during the war, was murdered in Auschwitz in November 1942. His stolperstein is at Boven Nieuwstraat 46.

"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."the German artist himself, Gunter Demnig.

For more information and pictures, please visit Stolpersteine Kampen (in Dutch).

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: Joop van Dijk
• Struikelstenen in Kampen
• The Persecution of Jews in Photographs. The Netherlands 1940-1945.
• Stolpersteine.eu