Stumbling Stones Baustraße 48

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

* Isaak Nathan, born 1880, arrested several times, the latest in 1941, Emmerich Police Detention Center, killed himself 16 August 1941.
* Lisette Nathan née Harf, born 1880, deported 1941, Riga, murdered 26 March 1942.
* Ruth Nathan, born 1921, fled 1939 to USA, survived.

Isaak Nathan, a cattle dealer, married Lisette Harf, who became a housewife and mother. Their daughter, Ruth, grew up in Emmerich; then at age 18 she fled to Britain and onward to the USA where she died at age 83.

Isaak Nathan was arrested numerous times; after the last one he died in jail in August 1941. Ruth submitted written testimony to Yad Vashem. For Place of Death, she wrote: "killed in jail, Nazis said ‘suicide’". Four months later, 11 December 1941, Lisette Nathan was deported to the Riga ghetto. Before she arrived, 27,500 Lativian Jews had been murdered to make room for the new deportations; surviving witnesses recalled blood in the streets. Lisette herself was murdered there 3 months later.

"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: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: Ed Sijmons (1), Tomtom 10 (2), Peter Schipper (3, 4)
• Center for Jewish History: Ruth N. Taub Collection
• Yad Vashem: Transport Duesseldorf to Riga, 11 Dec 1941
• Stolpersteine.eu