Stumbling Stones Höhenstraße 18

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

* Regina Levitus, geb. Lesegold, born 1902, deported1942 Lublin, murdered.
* Jossel Levitus, born 1930, deported1942 Lublin, murdered.

Background
Regina Lesegold and Ignatz Levitus married and together ran a hotel. In 1922 they moved to Frankfurt and bought a house at Höhenstrasse 18. In 1924, daughter Hanna was born, followed by Cili in 1925. Regina Levitus worked for Ignatz’s cinema company until 1928. Then the economic crisis forced them to sell their house, and they moved eventually to Strasbourg, where they ran a restaurant for two years. Their third daughter, Jutta, was born in 1928. Because of Ignatz’s illness, they moved back to Frankfurt, where he was able to run a fur trading business. Son Jossel (Josef) was born in 1930. Ignatz died shortly afterwards.

Regina Levitus continued to work – first as a housekeeper for the headmistress of a Jewish elementary school, and then in 1936/37 as a helper in the kitchen of a Jewish orphanage.

In 1938, Cilli (age 13) and Jutta (age 10) escaped to Holland in 1938 via Kindertransport. Regina accompanied Hanna to Genoa and managed to get her on a Kindertransport to Palestine.

Regina returned to Frankfurt. She and Jossel remained in Germany until they were deported in May 1942 to the Izbica ghetto in the Lublin area. The dates of their deaths are unknown.

"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: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: Sascha Stefan Ruehlow
• Frankfurt am Main Stolpersteine: Levitus, Regina & Jossel
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• Stolpersteine.eu