Eupen - 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 town of Eupen  

Gospertstraße 54: ISRAEL SCHALIT

                                  ESTERA ZYSLA SCHALIT

                                  JOSEPH MARKUS SCHALIT

                                  ROSA SCHALIT

Simarstraße 124: FRIEDRICH HENNES


Gospertstraße 54

hier wohnte

ISRAEL SCHALIT

Jg. 1900

verhaftet 1942

interniert Mechelen

deportiert 1942

ermordet in

Auschwitz

Gospertstraße 54

here lived

ISRAEL SCHALIT

Born 1900

arrested in 1942

interned Mechelen

deported in 1942

murdered in

Auschwitz

Gospertstraße 54

hier wohnte

ESTERA ZYSLA

SCHALIT

geb. DAFNER

Jg. 1908

versteckt gelebt

Verviers

befreit / überlebt

Gospertstraße 54

here lived

ESTERA ZYSLA

SCHALIT

born DAFNER

Born 1908

lived hidden

Verviers

freed / survived

Gospertstraße 54

hier wohnte

JOSEPH MARKUS

SCHALIT

Jg. 1932

versteckt gelebt

Verviers

befreit / überlebt

Gospertstraße 54

here lived

JOSEPH MARKUS

SCHALIT

Born 1932

lived hidden

Verviers

freed / survived

Gospertstraße 54

hier wohnte

ROSA SCHALIT

Jg. 1930

versteckt gelebt

Lüttich / Verviers

befreit / überlebt

Gospertstraße 54 

here lived

ROSA SCHALIT

Born 1930

lived hidden

Lüttich / Verviers

freed / survived

Israel was born on 20.05.1900 in Opoczno, he got arrested and imprisoned in the Cork Citadel, deported to Auschwitz by the 9th convoy in 1942 and murdered.

His wife Estera Zysla (Dafner) was born in 1908. She and their two children, Joseph Markus, born 28 Dec 1932, and Rosa, born 1930 in Liège, were hidden and survived.


Simarstraße 124

hier wohnte

FRIEDRICH HENNES

Jg. 1895

eingesperrt 10.5.1940

von Bürgern der Stadt

im Rathaus

gefängnis Aachen

1940 Sachsenhausen

ermordet 9.4.1941

Simarstraße 124

here lived

FREDERICK HENNES

Born 1895

imprisoned 10.5.1940

of citizens of the city

in the city Hall

prison Aachen

1940 Sachsenhausen

murdered 9.4.1941

The Nazis in Eupen had seized power in the city and occupied the town hall. There, Fritz Hennes, Police Commissioner, was informed in his office by the new citizens of Eupen and not the German Gestapo that he would be removed from his post and placed in “police custody”. He is considered the first political prisoner of Nazi terrorism in Belgium in 1940.

 

Hennes was locked in the layman's room, which filled with other people known for their anti-Nazi and problematic attitudes. All the prisoners feared for their lives. The guards were extremely aggressive and angry at the death of Nazi flagship Eupen Josef Kerres. Under the misleading assumption that the Belgian soldiers had already left town, Kerres had trampled at the Bellmerin barracks in the morning on a bicycle and a swastika flag attached to a beanstalk and was fatally shot there.

 

Gradually, the detainees were released from "protection". Fritz Hennes was allegedly released on May 18 and then jailed on June 14 for 21 days by the Gestapo in Aachen and Prüm. Arrested again on November 4, 1940, he was finally transferred from Aachen to Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the second day of Christmas with a transport of prisoners.  He died there on April 9, 1941, under unknown circumstances, allegedly of sepsis.