Stumbling Stones Dorpsstraat 38

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

* Salomon Meijer, born 1879, deported 1942, murdered 6 Septemberv1944, Auschwitz.
* Carolina Meijer-Jacobson, born 1883, deported 1942, murdered 6 September 1944, Auschwitz.
* Schoontje Jacobson, born 1863, deported 1942, murdered 19 November 1942, Auschwitz.
* Mozes Meijer, born 1912, deported 1943, murdered 15 March 1945, Central Europe.

Salomon Meijer, a cattle dealer and butcher, and Carolina Jacobson married in 1908. They had two sons, Simon and Mozes, and a daughter, Saartje. Salomon’s business was successful: records for 1932-1937 show him among those paying the highest tax to the synagogue. But the Nazis’ anti-Jewish laws ended that success. In 1942, the family went into hiding in Ontswedde. Sources differ on what happened next. One states that after hiding in more than one location, Salomon, Carolina, and Simon were found and arrested on the night of 14/15 June 1944, but their stolpersteine say they were deported in 1942 and 1943. However, sources are consistent that the parents, Salomon and Carolina Meijer died in Auschwitz in 1944.

Son Mozes Meijer suffered from mental illness. On the basis of this, his doctor tried without success to obtain exemption from a deportation test. Mozes was deported in 1943 and murdered two years later. His brother Simon, a farm laborer born in 1910, lived in Emmen in 1942 with with his wife and two young daughters. Simon’s wife and daughters were murdered first – in Auschwitz in 1943. Simon survived in forced labor until March 1945. Stolpersteine for Simon Meijer and his family are at Weerdingerstraat 1 (formerly No. 5) in Emmen.

In 1941, Schoontje Jacobson, Carolina’s sister, lived at Oosterstraat 16, Ter Apel, in the house of their brother Levie Jacobson, his wife Grietje Lea, and their only daughter Saartje Mathilda (born 1924). Schoontje did not marry, and records show that she did not have an occupation. She was murdered at Auschwitz in November 1942. The next month, Levie, Grietje Lea, and Saartje Mathilda Jacobson were all murdered at Auschwitz on 11 December 1942.

"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. This happened on 29 November 2007.

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Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: Bert Deelman (1, 2), Suzanne Matrosov-Vruggink (3), Suzanne Matrosov-Vruggink (4)
• Joods Monument
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• De Joodse familie Meijer in Onstwedde
• Stolpersteine.eu