Stumbling Stones Scheidlerstraße 3

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

* Alfred Walter, born 1894, deported 1942, Belzyce, ???
* Martha Walter née Friedmann, born 1900, deported 1942, Belzyce, ???

Background

After Alfred Walter passed the final exam at the Realgymnasium in his hometown of Rudolstadt, he fought in WW1. He then became the owner of a tobacco and betting shop. In 1924, he and Martha Friedmann married. Twelve years later, they moved to her parents’ villa at this Scheidlerstrasse 3 address.

Alfred Walter was arrested and sent to Buchenwald right after Reichspogromnacht of 9/10 November 1938. He was released in early December. In August 1941 he became the shop steward for the Saxony-Thuringia district office of the government association of Jews in Germany. He was the contact person for the Nazi regulations/order NS-Ordnung and changing laws.

In 1942, Alfred and Martha were forced to move to the wagon camp ("Wagonlager") for Jena Jews on Löbstedter Straße 56. Then in May 1942 they were deported to Belzyce Ghetto in Poland, where traces of them disappeared. Their official status in the German Federal Archives is "murdered."

Stolpersteine for Martha’s parents, Hermann and Klara Friedmann, are at Gietgasse 25-26 in Jena.

"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."