Stumbling Stones Gramsbergerweg 8

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

* Isak Frank, born 1866, murdered 20 March 1943, Sobibor.
* Aron Karel Frank, born 1909, murdered 30 November 1943, Lublin Majdanek.
* Helene Kösters, born 1900, murdered 9 July 1943, Sobibor.

Isak Frank married Henriëtte de Haas in 1896. Isak was a textile merchant who had a shop on Oosteinde in Hardenberg. The couple had four children: Martha, Andries, Alida, and Aron Karel. The two sons joined their father’s business and marketed merchandise in the area while their father worked in the shop. The older children later married and moved away, but Aron Karel remained a bachelor who lived with his parents. His mother, Henriëtte died in 1941 at home at age 67.

Helene Kösters, born in Gildehaus, Germany, became the live-in housekeeper for Isak and Aron Karel Frank at this location.

Isak, Aron, and son Andries plus Andries’ wife Frederike went into hiding in Dalfsen, helped by farmer Albert Huisman and his wife Hillichien. The Franks and three others hid in the attic – seven in all – for over a year. They were arrested on 5 March 1943 and taken to Westerbork, then to Sobibor. Isak and his daughter-in-law were murdered on arrival. According to one source, Aron and Andries were selected for work, but they later were killed in Majdanek. Stolpersteine for Andries and Frederike Frank are at Voorstraat 5 in Hardenberg.

Albert Huisman was arrested for hiding Jews and was detained for a year in Vught. He and his wife Hillichien survived the war.

Helene Kösters was murdered in July in Sobibor. Her mother, Sophie Kösters-Neter, and her sister Anna Reindorp-Kösters who both lived in Leeuwarden, were killed in Auschwitz in November 1942. Another sister, Josephiene Kösters, also a domestic helper, lived in Den Haag and was killed in Auschwitz in September 1942. Stolpersteine for the mother and three daughters are in Bad Bentheim (Gildehaus community) in Germany at Bernhard Hagels Platz 13.

"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: Jasper Nijman, Stichting Historische Projecten Hardenberg
• Joods Monument
• Geni.com
• Genealogie families uit het Noorden van Nederland: Albert Huisman
• "Levenslicht geeft Holocaust slachtoffers een gezicht," p.13
• Stolpersteine.eu
• Go2War2.nl