Stumbling Stone Antonplatz 15

This small, brass memorial plaque (Stolperstein or stumbling stone) commemorates:
* Hermann Rosenthal, born 1879, deported 1942, murdered in Belzyce.

Hermann Rosenthal was born in Chemnitz. As a child he contracted TB and, according to testimony by his great-nephew, he continued to suffer from TB as an adult. He worked as a commercial agent. He did not marry and had no children. At age 63, he was deported on 13 July 1942 from a Jewish Retirement Home at this address.

The deportation on that date left towards an unknown destination, which at some point became Auschwitz. Hermann Rosenthal’s name was on a Chemnitz list of those deported on 13 July 1942. Inconsistencies in the place he died reveal the problems of information during this period. Yad Vashem’s database shows he was murdered in Auschwitz, while the sponsors of his stolperstein found he was deported two months earlier and was killed in Belzyce.

"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).

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