Stumbling Stones Neustädter Straße 2

These memorial stones (Stolpersteine or stumbling blocks) commemorate:
* Chune Fuks, born 1879, ‘Polenaktion’ 1938, Bentschen / Zbaszyn, 1940 Lodz/Litzmannstadt, murdered 2 June 1942.
* Rwyka Fuks nee Nejmann, born 1881, ‘Polenaktion’ 1938, Bentschen / Zbaszyn, 1940 Lodz/Litzmannstadt, murdered.
* Chaim Jossek Fuks, born 1908, ‘Polenaktion’ 1938, Bentschen / Zbaszyn, 1940 Lodz/Litzmannstadt, murdered 3 November 1942.
* Max Fuks, born 1912, ‘Polenaktion’ 1938, Bentschen / Zbaszyn, 1940 Lodz/Litzmannstadt, murdered.
* Tekla Fuks, born 1920, deported 1942, Warsaw Ghetto, murdered.
* Zilla Fuks, born 1942, deported 1942, murdered in Auschwitz.

Chune Fuks, a businessman and Rwyka Nejmann married. Little information was found about them. They and their children were expelled in the 1938 "Polenaktion" because they were Polish citizens living in Germany. Three of their children – Chaim, Max and Tekla – and Tekla’s 10-month-old baby Zilla (sometimes spelled Cilla), were also murdered.

The "Polenaktion." On March 31, 1938, the Polish Parliament passed a law which provided for the possibility of withdrawing citizenship from all Polish citizens who had lived abroad for more than five years. The deadline for responding to a Polish consulate was 30 October. Then on 27 October 1938 (just before Kristallnacht) the Germans responded by sending expulsion orders to thousands of Polish Jews living in Germany. Bentschen is German for Zbaszyn in Poland. Since it had a railway connection near the German border, it was one of the 3 main towns receiving mass transports of expelled Polish Jews.

The small brass plaques, in the pavement in front of houses of which the (mostly Jewish) residents were persecuted or murdered by the Nazis, mention the name, date of birth and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death.

In many other cities, mainly in Germany but also in other European countries, the memorials also can be found. There are already many thousands of these plaques and their number is still counting. Almost all Stolpersteine are laid by the German artist himself, Gunter Demnig.

For more information and pictures, please visit Stolpersteine Brandenburg (in German).

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: wie-wolf
• Lausitzer Rundschau
• Das Bundes Archiv: Expulsion to Poland