Stumbling Stone Zschopauer Straße 85

This small, brass, memorial plaque (Stolperstein or stumbling stone) commemorates:

* Hirsch Leib Elstein, born 1889, fled 1939 to Belgium, interned Mechelen, deported 1942 Auschswitz, murdered 30 September 1942.

Hirsch Leib Elstein was born in the Ukraine. He and his brother Josef emigrated to Leipzig. After the December 1914 pogram there, they moved to Chemnitz and began a business together. Hirsch and Gertrude Johanna Ulrich married in October 1922 in Chemnitz – a mixed marriage. Their first child died in 1923 before her first birthday. In 1925, brother Josef died. Hirsch and Johanna had two more children: Siegfried Joseph (b. 1928), and Sonja (b. 1932). Seven years later, Johanna’s mother and brother helped Hirsch escape from the Nazis to Belgium, with the brother driving and the mother hiding Hirsch under her skirt. He lived in St. Gilles in Brussels until he was taken to Mechelen in September 1942. An 8 September 1942 list of deportees to Auschwitz shows him as stateless, even though he was a German citizen. The German Federal Archives records his death on 30 September. One source suggests it was due to illness.

Johanna Elstein and the children remained in Germany. She ran the business until the Nazis closed it, denouncing her for having married a Jew and for refusing to divorce him.

"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."

For more information and pictures, please visit Stolpersteine Chemnitz (in German).

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

Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: Treem
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• Family Search: Hirsch Leib Elstein
• Stolpersteine.eu