Stumbling Stones Bilker Allee 136

These memorial stones (Stolpersteine or stumbling blocks) commemorate:

* Hermann Cahn, born 1894, deported 1941, murdered in Minsk.
* Johanna Cahn née Herz, born1893, deported 1941, murdered in Minsk.

Hermann and Johanna Cahn had 2 sons, Helmut and Günther. After Pogromnacht, in 1939 the parents sent their sons (ages 16 and 14) via Kindertransport to Great Britain. Helmut remained in Britain, where he died in 1990 (age 66), but Günther was considered an enemy alien and was deported in 1942 from Britain to Canada, where he remained until his death in 2012 at age 86.

In July 1941, after invasion of the Soviet Union and capture of Minsk, the Germans established a Minsk ghetto of about 80,000-100,000 residents. In November 1941, the Germans set up another smaller ghetto in Minsk to process Jews deported from the West (mostly Germany, Bohemia and Moravia).

Both Hermann and Johanna were deported in November 1941. He was 47 when he was killed; she was 48. No information was found on Hermann’s parents or siblings. Johanna’s parents both died before the war. Of her 5 siblings, 4 were also killed in November 1941 in the Minsk ghetto; one brother escaped to Israel where he died in 1980.

The small brass plaques, in the pavement in front of houses of (mostly Jewish) residents who were persecuted or murdered by the Nazis, mention the name, date of birth and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death.

In many other cities, mainly in Germany but also in other European countries, the memorials also can be found. There are already many thousands of these plaques and their number is still growing. Almost all Stolpersteine are laid by the German artist himself, Gunter Demnig.

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!