Stumbling Stones Ursulastraße 15

These memorial stones (Stolpersteine or stumbling blocks) commemorate:
* Paul Schöndorf, born 1895, expelled 1938, murdered in concentration camp.
* Elice Schöndorf née Zwiebel, born 1896, expelled 1938, murdered in concentration camp.
* Klara Schöndorf, born 1922, expelled 1938, murdered in concentration camp.
* Elly Schöndorf, expelled 1938, murdered in concentration camp. [no birth date given]
* Ida Schöndorf, born 1926, expelled 1938, murdered in concentration camp.

The Schöndorfs were affected by the German Reich’s "Poland Action," which identified Jews considered to be of Polish origin and forcibly returned them to Poland in October 1938. Generally records are incomplete, but an estimated 12,000-17,000 Polish Jews were expelled from Germany. One refugee camp has some records: Zbąszyń (Bentschen in German), a Polish town near the border. Their records, now in Das Bundesarchiv, show that Paul (Saul), Elice, Klara and Ida Schöndorf were deported on 28 October 1938 to Bentschen. The camp there was closed in the summer of 1939.

Personal correspondence tell us a little more. According to letters received by the daughter of Gertrud and Simon Reifeisen, the Schöndorfs were re-located from Bentchen to Stanislau. Paul and Elice were apparently trying to help the Reifeisens escape. Gertrud Reifeisen wrote to her daughter that she had received a card from the Schöndorfs dated February 1940. The next mention is in Gertrud’s letter of two years later that she had received news of the death of Mrs. Schöndorf and the little boy ("der kleine Junge" [although there is no other mention of a boy in the family]) and news that Schöndorf and Ida and Elly had been baptized ("haben sich taufen lassen"). Neither the Reifeisens nor the Schöndorfs survived the Holocaust.

The small brass plaques, in the pavement in front of houses of which the (mostly Jewish) residents 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 and villages, 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 counting. Almost all Stolpersteine are laid by the German artist himself, Gunter Demnig.

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

Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: Jens-Erik Janke
• http://www.stolpersteine-dorsten.de/