Stumbling Stones Kreuzstraße 10

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

* Isidor Löb, born 1866, fled 1939 Belgium, interned Mechelen, deported 1942, murdered in Auschwitz.
* Karoline Löb, born 1872, fled 1939 Belgium, interned Mechelen, deported 1942, murdered in Auschwitz.
* Salomon Lehmann, born 1868, fled 1939 Belgium, interned Mechelen, deported 1942, murdered in Auschwitz.
* Mina Lehmann née Leon, born 1871, fled 1939 Belgium, dead 26 August 1941 in Brussels.
* Amalie Herz, born 1859, fled 1939 Belgium, dead 1941 in Brussels.

Background

Isidor and Karoline Löb (née Maier) ran a farm. With his son Leopold, Isidor also had a livestock trading business. In 1905, Isidor Löb built a 3-story house at Kreuzstrasse 10. In May 1939, Isidor, Karoline, and other members of the Löb family escaped Germany on the St. Louis. The St. Louis’s passengers (most were Jews) were refused entry by Cuba (their visas were cancelled), the United States, and Canada. The ship returned to Europe in June with almost all its passengers, who got off in Britain, France, Belgium, or Holland. Isidor and Karoline disembarked in Antwerp and remained in Belgium, living in Brussels. Their children and grandchildren left Belgium before the German occupation. Isidor and Karoline were taken to the Mechelen (Malines) camp, then were deported on 26 September 1942 to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.

Salomon and Mina Lehmann, the parents of Isidor and Karoline’s daughter-in-law, ran a butcher shop. They were forced to sell the shop, and on 5 March 1938, they moved to the Löb house along with Salomon’s stepsister, Amalie Herz. They, too, went on the St. Louis, and eventually disembarked in Belgium. Mina Lehmann and Amalie Herz both died in Brussels in 1941. Salomon Lehmann was interned in Mechelen, then deported to Auschwitz in 1942 and murdered there.

"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, year 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: Wilhelm Bühler
• Heimatfreunde Malsch
• US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Voyage of the St. Louis
• Stolpersteine.eu