Stumbling Stones Prinses Julianastraat 10

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

* Lotte Blein-Stein, born 1877, murdered 21 May 1943, Sobibor.
* Karl I. Michelsohn, born 1896, murdered 7 February 1945, Central Europe.
* Ilse Michelsohn, born 1929, murdered 7 July 1944, Auschwitz.
* Mathilda Michelsohn-Blein, born 1905, murdered 7 July 1944, Auschwitz.

Little was found about this family other than their relationships. Karl Michelsohn’s permanent residence was Ansbach, Germany, the town where he was born. He, a merchant, and Mathilda Blein married and had a daughter, Ilse. In February 1939, they fled to the Netherlands along with Mathilda’s mother, Lotte Blein-Stein. They all came to this address in Hardenberg to be near to where Mathilda’s brother Simon Blein lived.

In this household, Lotte Blein was the first to be taken -- deported to Sobibor and murdered in 1943. The next year, Karl, Mathilda and Ilse Michelsohn were deported first to Theresienstadt in January, and then to Auschwitz on 16 May. Mathilde and Ilse were murdered there in July. Karl may have been selected for work: he survived a few more months until his murder in Central Europe on 7 February 1945.

Stolpersteine for Mathilda’s brother Simon Blein, his wife Gerta, and their young daughter Lotte are at Fortuinstraat 2 in Hardenberg.

"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.

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: Jasper Nijman, Stichting Historische Projecten Hardenberg
• "Levenslicht geeft Holocaust slachtoffers een gezicht," p.14
• holocaust.cz
• Joods Monument
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• Stolpersteine.eu