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Jewish memorial stones dug out and taken to construction dump

  • February 02, 2020

Germany recently marked the laying of its 75,000 Stolperstein (stumbling stone) — name-engraved bronze cubes embedded mainly outside former Jewish homes — but Plettenberg has admitted that five vanished early while contractors laid glass fiber cable to boost urban Internet services.

Trenching was done early last year at the address Alte Markt 3, formerly home to the Heilbronn family. In 1942, parents Helene and Alex were murdered at Treblinka; their children Egon, Jenni and five-year-old Hannelore at Zamosc.

Read more: 75,000th ‘Stolperstein’ for Holocaust victims laid in Germany

The cubes’ apparent disposal at a local site for building waste was made public this week by a local historical association, said a local portal of the Märkischer Zeitung newspaper for the Lennetal valley in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state.

But, only after mayor Ulrich Schulte had taken part last Monday at a remembrance event for Holocaust victims at Plettenberg’s Jewish cemetery, said the portal’s author Johannes Opfermann.

‘Very annoying’

Schulte went on to describe the loss as “very annoying”  and the city’s building director Sebastian Jülich said the ground works firm — subcontracted by a telecommunications concern — had paid €280 for each replacement cube and still-awaited installation.

“The most important thing is that stones are replaced in the [cobble-stone] pavement,” said Mayor Schulte, adding that he regarded the engraved cubes as a very important way to remember the victims of Hitler’s Nazi era.

n this aerial view a worker drives a specialzed vehicle that is laying tubing used for running fiber optic cable underground during the installation of broadband infrastructure

Laying conduit for glass-fire cabling

Last year, while the cable was trenched into the cobbled pavement, both the project supervisor as well as the contracted firm had been told “many times” about the Stolpersteine, said Jülich.

‘Disposed of’

That unfortunately didn’t work; the stones were disposed of,” said Julich, adding that cubes at other trenching sites had been taken into safekeeping during cable-laying.

Read more: Nazi victim memorial stones stolen in Berlin (2017)

Beginnng in 2015, the 25,000-population city had had 13 cubes laid in memory of its late Jewish residents, as part of a decades-long remembrance project led by the Cologne-based artist Gunter Demnig.

Plettenberg’s city marketing association says the cubes, including those laid at the Alter Markt (old market) by Demnig in 2015, were donated by the trade union IG Metall and pupils of the Gertrud-Bäumer vocational college in neighboring Ludenschied.

Engraved by hand in 24 languages

Supplying them since 2005 has been Michael Friedrichs-Friedlaender, a sculptor specialized in metals, who from his Berlin workshop delivers to 26 European countries with his engraving done by hand in 24 different languages.

Embedded into each cube, measuring 9.6 centimeters square (3.8 inches) and weighing two kilograms (4.5 lbs), is an engraved bronze cap.

Starting with the words “here lived,” the plaque then records the victim’s name, date of birth and a date alongside words such as “deported”, “murdered”, “disappeared” and “forced to flee” (auf der Flucht).”

Stolpersteine in memory of Jewish residents, politically persecuted, Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and euthanasia victims are now displayed in some 1,200 cities and communities across Germany.

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/jewish-memorial-stones-dug-out-and-taken-to-construction-dump/a-52230057?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

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