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 Rumst

Molenveld 18: ARTHUR VINCK

Veerstraat 36: ANTOINE DE WINTER

Veerstraat 66: JOHN VINGERHOETS

Arthur Vinck was born in Boom in 1911 and died in the Gestapo prison camp Neue-Bremm in Saarbrucken (Germany) on November 8, 1943. He then lived in Rumst in the Molenveld. His wife was Theresia lda Maria Peeters.

Antoine De Winter was born in Rumst on November 14, 1902. He was a teacher at the state secondary school for boys in Boom for many years and married to Emilie Josepha De Bruyn and the couple lived with their son Paul in the Veerstraat in Rumst.

Antoine did not mince his words, he openly expressed his convictions and patriotism. He was also a member of LOMO, an illegal teachers' union of the resistance movement Independence Front. He was also a member of the Secret Army as a sector commander with the rank of Captain. These activities were not without danger, because between the summer of 1942 and April 1943 the organization was almost completely wiped off the map by waves of arrests.

Antoine De Winter was the victim of denunciation by a fellow villager. On February 7, 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo in his home in Rumst. His son Paul witnessed the brutal and violent arrest. Both his parents had to stand with their faces against the wall with their arms in the air, while father Antoine was hit with gun butts.

Antoine eventually ended up in the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Germany. He was one of the 1693 Belgians who lost their lives in Camp Flossenburg. He died there on March 16, 1945. In December 1945, a solemn funeral service took place for Antoine De Winter in St. Peter's Church in Rumst. Later, a memorial plaque was unveiled for him at the state secondary school in Boom and in Rumst Antoine De Winter received a street name as a tribute.

John (Jan Baptist) Vingerhoets was the son of Petrus Antoon Vingerhoets and Joanna Geysemans and was born in Rumst in 1923. He was a stoneworker by profession. His last known address was in the Veerstraat (where number 66 is now).

He and a comrade tried in vain to escape from behind, but he was caught by the Gestapo as a work refuser and deported to Germany. He died on March 27, 1945 as a forced laborer in the Weimar Kahla Thuringen camp on the Eichenberg in Germany, two days before the camp was liberated. In June 1945, a solemn memorial service took place for him in St. Peter's Church in Rumst.