Stumbling Stones Van Helomalaan 10

STOLPERSTEINE / STUMBLING STONES

On 07-04-2014 three Stolpersteine were laid here in Wolvega for:
Emmanuel Mendels
Elsie Mendels-Davidson
Abraham Delmonte.

Abraham Mendels and Mina Davidson got married on 27-07-1873 in the Frisian municipality of Lemsterland.

They had nine children, the last two of whom died at a young age; of the other seven, six were killed in German extermination camps in Poland.

• Pietje Mendels 13-9-1874 / 14-1-1943 Auschwitz
• Betje Mendels 28-9-1876 / 14-9-1942 Auschwitz area
• Emanuel Mendels 2-11-1878 /1-1-1944 Birkenau
• Salomo Mendels 4-10-1880 / 8-8-1965 Utrecht (survived the war)
• Hendrica Mendels 14-4-1882 /2-4-1943 Sobibor
• Woman Mendels 24-01-1884 / 14-2-1884 Wolvega
• Levi Mendels 7-8-1885 / 2-4-1943 Sobibor
• Marcus Mendels 21-10-1887 / 9-5-1891 Wolvega
• Sara Mendels 26-3-1891 / 27-8-1943 Auschwitz

On 16-11-1906 (also in Lemsterland) Emanuel Mendels and Elsje Davidson got married, their marriage remained childless, but from 27-09-1910 they took care of the 2-year-old Abraham Delmonte, son of Emanuel's sister Betje, as foster parents.

Emanuel was co-owner of a successful export slaughterhouse. He was arrested by the Germans on 14-12-1942, transferred to transit camp Westerbork, and from there transported to Auschwitz. He was murdered in the Birkenau camp, the date of death is stated as 01-01-1944.

Elsje was born on 13-03-1884 in Lemmer as the daughter of Marcus Davidson and Froukje Velleman. A few months after her husband, namely on 16-03-1943, she was arrested and immediately deported the next day from Westerbork to Sobibór where she was killed on 20-03-1943.

Abraham Delmonte was born on 10-01-1908 in Amsterdam as the son of Emanuel Delmonte and Betje Mendels, Jacob, Salomon and Mina were also born from this marriage.

Father Emanuel died on 08-11-1918, his mother was killed in Auschwitz on 14-09-1942.

The other children and their families were also killed in the German extermination camps; Jacob's son, Emanuel, born on 24-03-1943, survived the war thanks to a hiding place.
Emanuel Mendel, together with his brother Salomo Mendels living in Meppel and the Slager family from Steenwijk, owned the successful 'Wolvegaster Exportslachterij NV'. After the liberation, Salomo resumes the export of meat from Wolvega. In 1952, the slaughterhouse was merged with Van de Bend slaughterhouse in Zwolle. Salomo moves from his hometown of Meppel to Utrecht, where he dies in 1965 at the age of 84. Salomo married Evelina Haas, born in 1878 in Almelo. The couple had four children: Mina (1912), Rebekka (1913), Esther (1915) and Benjamin (1916).

In the years before the war, Abraham worked as a bookkeeper in the slaughterhouse of Emanuel Mendels, at the time of the German invasion on 10-05-1940, he served as a sergeant of the Liberation Troops in Amsterdam.
After the devastating German bombardment of Rotterdam (14-05-1940), the Netherlands capitulated, for Abraham this was reason for suicide the next day. "Driven to suicide" is the text that has been applied to the stolperstein that has been placed in his memory. He died in the Military Hospital of Amsterdam and is buried in the Portuguese-Jewish cemetery in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, where his father was also laid to rest.

In memory, the stolpersteine were laid on 07-04-2014 at Van Helomalaan 10, but a "confused man" removed them at the end of February 2015. Although the stolpersteine were found, they turned out to be so damaged that they could not be replaced, but it was soon decided to have new ones manufactured and these were actually installed in the sidewalk.

Emanuel's sister Hendrica and brother Levi also lived in Wolvega; they were also arrested by the Germans and murdered in Sobibór, stolpersteine have been placed for them at 38 Hoofdstraat West. Their names are also mentioned on the glass War Memorial at the Jewish Cemetery at the Schapendrift in Noordwolde.

The German artist Gunter Demnig started placing the first Stolpersteine in 1997 in the Berlin's Kreuzberg district.
Meanwhile there are Stolpersteine in many countries.
It reminds the Holocaust in World War II.
A Stolperstein is a concrete stone of 10 x 10cm, with a brass plate on top, in which the name, date of birth and decease and also place of decease is punched into.
The Stolperstein gets a place in the pavement in front of the former house of the victim.
By doing this, Gunter Demnig gives a private memorial to each victim.
His motto is: '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 the 29-11-2007.