Stumbling Stone Kruisstraat 27

Stolperstein / Stumbling Stone commemorates:
* Henri Toncman, born 1921, deported 16 October 1942 from Westerbork, murdered 26 December 1944, Blechhammer.

Henri Toncman was a warehouse clerk, deported in the direction of Auschwitz. October 1942 saw the highest number of persons deported in a month from Westerbork – almost 12,000 persons. Not found is information about the circumstances under which Henri Toncman was sent to Blechhammer. He was killed at age 23.

Blechhammer was a forced-labor camp supporting a number of German factories. It was subsumed as an Auschwitz sub-camp in April 1944. Unskilled and hard labor included pulling wagons and tractors after horses were taken away at the end of 1944. The Soviets were approaching and the Nazis were moving prisoners away. The month after Henri Toncman was killed, nearly 4,000 prisoners were forced to march for 10-13 days to Gross-Rosen camp. Eight hundred were killed this way; the survivors were taken to two other concentration camps.

There are also stolpersteine for Henri Toncman’s sister and two brothers:
Henriëtte A. Beem-Toncman and her family are at Kerkstraat 11 in Oss; Alexander Toncman (1908-1942) and his wife at Baljuwplein 66 /Harddraverstraat 78c in Rotterdam; and Abraham Toncman (1905-1943) and his family at Hendrik Westerstraat 247 in Oude Pekela.

"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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Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: Peter Mulder
• Joods Monument
• Geni.com
• Yad Vashem: Deportation Westerbork to Auschwitz 16.10.1942
• Auschwitz Study Group: Blechhammer
• Stolpersteine.eu