Heist-op-den-Berg - Stolpersteine

Information: Wikipedia

A Stolperstein literally "stumbling stone", metaphorically a "stumbling block" is a sett-size, 10 by 10 centimetres (3.9 in × 3.9 in) concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.

 

The Stolpersteine project, initiated by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, aims to commemorate individuals at exactly the last place of residency—or, sometimes, work—which was freely chosen by the person before he or she fell victim to Nazi terror, euthanasia, eugenics, was deported to a concentration or extermination camp, or escaped persecution by emigration or suicide. As of 29 March 2018, over 67,000 Stolpersteine have been laid in 22 countries, making the Stolpersteine project the world's largest decentralized memorial.

 

The majority of Stolpersteine commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Others have been placed for Sinti and Romani people (then also called "gypsies"), homosexuals, the physically or mentally disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses, black people, members of the Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the anti-Nazi Resistance, the Christian opposition (both Protestants and Catholics), and Freemasons, along with International Brigade soldiers in the Spanish Civil War, military deserters, conscientious objectors, escape helpers, capitulators, "habitual criminals", looters, and others charged with treason, military disobedience, or undermining the Nazi military, as well as Allied soldiers.

 

List of Stolpersteine in the city of Heist-op-den-Berg

Herentalsesteenweg 19: RENE LAMBRECHTS


Herentalsesteenweg 19

hier woonde

RENE LAMBRECHTS

geb. 1923

verzetsstrijder

gearresteerd 2-11-1943

geïnterneerd

meerdere kampen

Mittelbau-Dora

bevrijd

Herentalsesteenweg 19

here lived

RENE LAMBRECHTS

born 1923

resistance fighter

arrested 2-11-1943

interned

multiple camps

Mittelbau-Dora

liberated

René Lambrechts is one of the best-known resistance fighters from Heist-op-den-Berg. In the aftermath of the arrests of resistance members involved in the robbery of a dynamite transport on October 22, 1943, the German occupier conducted a raid during the night of November 1 to 2. Many Heist resistance fighters were arrested. One of them was Lambrechts.

The resistance fighter survived the war and subsequently became a valued historian. Struggling with increasingly poor health, he died on October 19, 1981 in his birthplace at Herentalsesteenweg 19.