Stumbling Stone H.W. Mesdagstraat 22

This small brass memorial plaque (Stolperstein or stumbling stone) commemorates:

* Jan Albert Coenraad Meijer, born 1919, resistance fighter, deported 1945 from Groningen, murdered 20 February 1945, Neuengamme.

When Jan Albert Coenraad Meijer was in school, he was an athlete who won several high jump competitions. After secondary school, he studied engineering and was in the fourth year in 1944. He was employed at a shipyard. In the resistance his actual role is not known, but he was associated with a knokplog (an armed resistance group) led by Jelte Zuiderhoek. On 19 November 1944, Jan Meijer was arrested as an illegal worker. On 16 January 1943, along with many other resistance fighters from the north, he was deported from the Groningen House of Detention to Neuengamme. Then Jan Meijer was sent to the forced labor sub-camp in Hamburg-Veddel, where he was killed on 20 February 1945. The cause of death was stated as pneumonia.

"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."

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

Source

• Text: Bert Deelman & Anne Palmer
• Photos: Bert Deelman (1, 3), Suzanne Matrosov-Vruggink (2)
• Biografie Jan Albert Coenraad Meijer
• Stolpersteine.eu