Stumbling Stones Untere Hauptstraße 3

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

* Maier Adelsberger, born 1865, humiliated / deprived of his rights, dead 7 August 1938.
* Charlotte Adelsberger née Neu, born 1872, deported 1940 to Gurs, murdered 2 December 1940.
* Wilhelm Adelsberger, born 1903, "protective custody" [‘schutzhaft’] 1938 in Dachau, deported 1940 to Gurs, interned at Drancy, 1942 to Auschwitz, murdered 1942.
* Frieda Adelsberger née Adelsberger, born 1898, deported 1940 to Gurs, interned at Drancy, 1942 to Auschwitz, murdered 1942.
* Moritz Adelsberger, born 1896, "protective custody" [‘schutzhaft’] 1938 in Dachau, 1943 forced labor [Zwangsarbeit] in Berlin, deported 1945 to Theresienstadt, freed / survived.
* Anna Adelsberger née Götz, born 1909, humiliated / deprived of her rights, survived.

Maier was a cattle dealer. He, his wife Charlotte and their children Wilhelm and Frieda lived at this address. Their other son Moritz lived with his wife Anna in Mannheim.

Maier died at age 73 in 1938, shortly before the Reichspogramnacht. Wilhellm was taken into "protective custody" at Dachau in 1938 and then released the same year. Two years later, on 22 October 1940, as part of the Wagner-Bürckel-Aktion to remove Jews from the Baden and Saar-Palatinate regions, Charlotte, Wilhelm and Frieda were taken to a collection place and then deported with approximately 7,000 others by train to the Gurs internment camp in the French Pyrenees. With the new arrivals, Gurs lacked adequate food, medical supplies and sanitation. Weakened physically and mentally, Charlotte died there 5 weeks later of typhus. Wilhelm and Frieda were later taken to the internment camp in Drancy, outside of Paris, from which they were deported in 1942 to Auschwitz and murdered.

Moritz survived Dachau, forced labor in Berlin and Theresienstadt. He is the only Hockenheim Jew who survived deportation and returned. He, his wife Anna and their two children then lived in his parents’ house. He was active in Hockenheimer life and was well respected by its citizens. He died at age 80 in 1976.

"Stolpersteine" is an art project for Europe by Gunter Demnig to commemorate victims of National Socialism (Nazism). Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) are small 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: Andreas Rockstein (1), Andreas Rockstein (2), Andreas Rockstein (3)
• Stolpersteine in Hockenheim
• "Bruchbuden? Von wegen!"
• Information Portal to European Sites of Remembrance
• Stolpersteine.eu