Stumbling Stone Noordwolderweg 50

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

* Bernard Kornelis Vriezema, born 1907, arrested 13 July 1943 Bedum, murdered 6 June 1945, Lüneburg.

Berend Kornelis Vriezema was a farm worker and a thatcher. He was also in the resistance and was arrested with 3 other men because they would have distributed inflammatory pamphlets during the 1943 strike. He was taken to a concentration camp.

While there, he learned that his wife gave birth to a daughter and that an older daughter died of diphtheria. He did not see his family again. He died of exhaustion in Lüneburg. He was 38. His grave is in the Dutch War Cemetery in Lübeck.

"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."

Borne was the first town in the Netherlands in which Stolpersteine were placed -- on 29 November 2007.

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