Stumbling Stones Ridderstraat 38

Stolpersteine / Stumbling stones
for
* Githa Hirnheimer-Hirnheimer, born 1862, deported 29 June 1943, from Westerbork, murdered 02 July 1943 Sobibor.
* Rosi Hanna Ochs, born 1929, deported 04 May 1943, from Westerbork, murdered 7 May 1943 Sobibor.

Githa Hirnheimer-Hirnheimer was Rosi’s maternal grandmother. Dates for their stories are inconsistent in various places. Githa and her husband, Max Hirnheimer lived in Germany, as did Rosi and her parents. In or after 1937, the grandparents went to the Netherlands. Max died in 1938 or 1940. At the end of 1938 after Kristallnacht, the Nazis removed Rosi and other Jewish students from their school in Hereleshausen, Germany. Her parents then decided to send her – their only child -- away from their town and to the Netherlands. There are two stories: either they sent her with foster parents, or they sent her to stay with her grandparents. In either case, the grandmother and granddaughter were together in Oss. One account states that Rosi then went to a Dutch-Israeli Girls’ House in Amsterdam. Later most of the girls were taken from there to Westerbork, from where they were deported and killed. Rosi was almost 13. The next month, her 80-year-old grandmother was deported from Westerbork and killed 3 days after that.

In Herleshausen, Germany, on Am Anger 2, there are stolpersteine for Rosi and for her parents:

Kallmann Ochs (born 1896 , deported 1941 to Riga, murdered 1 Jan 1942) and Recha Ochs (née Hirnheimer, born 1886, deported 1941 to Riga, murdered 1 Oct 1944 in Stutthof).

"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
• Sobibor: Rosi Ochs
• Stolpersteine.eu