Stumbling Stones Lessingstraße 4

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

* Martha Königstein née Schweitzer, born 1879, deported 1942 to Warsaw Ghetto, ???
* Irene Fleischer née Berliner, born 1888, deported 1942 to Warsaw Ghetto, ???

Martha Königstein was the widow of Ferdinand Königstein, who died in 1935. No other information was found about her life or death.

In the 1920s, Irene Fleischer, her husband Berthold – a chemist and teacher – and their son Daniel Silvain moved from Ghent to Cottbus, where they became successful and respected. Silvain completed high school with honors. But in 1933, the new anti-Jewish laws led to the dismissal of Jewish lecturers, including Berthold. In 1935 they moved to a city "Jewish house." In November 1938, son Daniel was among Jewish men who were arrested and taken to Sachsenhausen. After he was freed the following April, he emigrated to England. Berthold Fleischer died the next year. Irene then was forced to move again to another "Judenhaus," which she shared with the widow Martha Köningstein and others. In April 1942, Irene Fleischer, Martha Königstein, and over 50 other Cottbus Jews were deported with 100s of others to the Warsaw Ghetto. From there, Irene responded to her son’s inquiries via the Red Cross, but she was not heard from after the war.

"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."

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: wie-wolf
• LR Online: Im Viehwaggon ging es ins Warschauer Ghetto, 18 Sept 2014
• List of Jewish Residents of Cottbus
• Yad Vashem Deportation Database: Transport 12 Berlin-Warsaw Ghetto
• National Archives U.K.
• Stolpersteine.eu