Stumbling Stone Alt Herrenwyk 1

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

* Dr. Moritz Neumark, born 1866, dismissed 1934, forced to move Berlin 1936, deported 1943 Theresienstadt, murdered 25 February 1943.

Background

Moritz Neumark was born in 1866 as Moses Lazarus Neumark. His education included studying metallurgy at technical schools in Berlin, Dresden, and Jena; he received a doctoral degree from the University of Erlangen in in 1891. He and Ida Händler married and had 3 children – Hans, Susy, and Lore.

Moritz Neumark worked in heavy industry (iron works), and in 1905 he became the general director of Hochofenwerk Lübeck AG. Under his leadership, large installations were built including blast furnaces, coke oven batteries, and a copper smelter. Outside of work, he created for his workers a choir, orchestra, library, training workshops, games, and send-offs for children. Later he also developed technical engineering innovations. One was patented in 1932. But the next year he was excluded from area clubs because he was Jewish. In 1934, he left the company under pressure. Moritz and Ida’s son Hans remained as head of the copper smelter until 1938, when he emigrated to the U.S. Moritz and Ida’s daughters, Susy and Lore, had already emigrated to England.

Moritz and Ida Neumark and Moritz’s brother Max were deported with 97 others on 28 January 1943 from Berlin to Theresienstadt. Moritz Neumark was dead less than a month later. He was 76. Ida and Max survived.

Ida Neumark was especially fortunate. In February 1945, just months before the end of the war, she got a place on a "freedom train" to Switzerland – initiated by a Swiss couple (Recha and Isaac Sternbuch) who contacted a Swiss former president, Jean Marie Mussy. He deposited $1 million into Himmler’s bank account to facilitate the negotiated plans.

"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, year 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: Ralf Küpper
• Stolpersteine in Lübeck: Moritz Neumark
• Wikipedia: Moritz Neumark
• Heidi B. Neumark, Hidden Inheritance: Family Secrets, Memory, and Faith. Nashville, TN, USA: Abingdon Press, 2015. Author Heidi Neumark is a granddaughter of Moritz Neumark.
• Mamlock Foundation: The Train to Freedom
• holocaust.cz
• Stolpersteine.eu