Stumbling Stones Praterstraße 23

These Stolpersteine / Stumbling Stones commemorate:
* Lehmann Katzenberger, born 1873, murdered 3 June 1942, München-Stadelheim.
* Klara Katzenberger née Sichel, born 1884, deported 1942 Izbica, missing (presumed dead).

* Max Katzenberger, born 1878, deported 1942 Izbica, missing (presumed dead).
* Klara Katzenberger née Sichel, born 1892, deported 1942 Izbica, missing (presumed dead).

Lehmann (also called "Leo") and Max Katzenberger were brothers who each married a Klara Sichel, from different families. Leo and Max’s brother David (b1875) married Max’s wife’s sister, Blanca/Bianca Sichel. The 3 Katzenberger brothers owned shoe shops across southern Germany.

Leo Katzenberger, was arrested on 18march 1941 for violating the Nazi Rassenschutzgesetz, or Racial Protection Law. The judge at the "Katzenberger Trial," Oswald Rothaug, condemned him for having an affair with an Aryan woman despite a lack of evidence. Leo Katzenberger was executed by guillotine in June 1942 at Stadelheim, a large prison in Munich, infamous for its executions during the Nazi period. After the war, Rothaug himself was found guilty of crimes against humanity: he used his court as a tool in the Nazi program of persecution and extermination.

While Leo was still in prison, the only deportation from Nürnberg to Izbica -- on 24 March 1942 -- took his brother Max and the two Klara's. Of the 426 Nürnberg residents deported on that day, none survived. On that same day in Izbica, in order to make some room for incoming deportees including those from Nürnberg, many persons already in Izbica were taken to the nearby extermination camp in Belzec and murdered.

Leo and Klara Katzenberg had 2 daughters who both survived; Max Katzenberg and his wife Klara also had a daughter who survived. Leo and Max’s Brother David Katzenberg was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942; he survived, arriving in Switzerland in March 1945 and then moving to Israel.

"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."

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Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: John Shorack
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• Geni.com
• Wikipedia: Katzenberger Trial
• Translation: Jurists’ Trial Verdict
• Stolpersteine.eu