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.

On Wednesday 6th December 2023 a stumbling stone was placed for Karel Poffyn at Graslei in Gent.

Wilfried was born as a Belgian in Terneuzen on December 8, 1922. Already at the beginning of December 1940, as a young student of barely eighteen years old, he was co-founder of the first resistance cells at Ghent University. Good friends at the university included Jan Everaert (returned from KZ Neuengamme) and Pieter Dossche (+ KZ Neuengamme 2/5/1942). Only a few months later they joined the Patriotic Militia of the Independence Front, Sector III Ghent. Wilfried was recruited by André Mandrycxs, who would later play a leading role in the Belgian solidarity and resistance committee in the Neuengamme concentration camp on the outskirts of Hamburg.

Until the date of his arrest, Wilfried recruited new members, organized armed resistance groups and participated in numerous acts of sabotage. He systematically collected useful military intelligence and was publisher and distributor of the clandestine press, such as 'London-Moscou' and 'Student Signal'. Together with his friends he was co-leader of a well-organized mass patriotic uprising against the occupying forces.  However, Wilfried was denounced together with friends and arrested on July 31, 1941, because of his political beliefs and patriotic activities in student circles. He had paper sheets with him and a ribbon with the Belgian tricolor, from which he cut pieces for the people of Ghent. First he spent 3 weeks in the 'Nieuwewandeling' prison in Ghent, after which he was locked up in the Fort of Breendonk for 1 month.

He then belonged to the very first Belgian convoy to a German concentration camp, more specifically that of KZ Neuengamme in Hamburg. On September 22, 1941, this convoy with 256 Belgian Political Prisoners left for Hamburg, where it arrived on September 24, 1941. Wilfried was assigned camp number 06273. In the end, only 54 Belgians from this very first convoy KZ Neuengamme survived, that is only 1 in 5!. Wilfried lasted less than 7 months in the main camp of Neuengamme. Already on April 14, 1942, two weeks after his friend Pieter Dossche (NG-06277), he died there of exhaustion and illness.

In addition to the many medals that were awarded to him posthumously, he was also posthumously promoted to Captain of the Armed Resistance.

Jean Ingels was born in Saint-Laurent on June 13, 1907.  He was a resistance fighter, got arrested and shot on January 20, 1943 at the National Tir in Schaerbeek.

Karel Jozef (Charles Joseph) POFFYN, was born in Sint-Amandsberg on 25 October 1897 and died in Meppen-Versen on 6 December 1944, he was married to Emma Verdonck and had 2 sons, Jozef and Theophiel.  He worked as an “auxiliary electrician” at the Telegraaf en Telefoon (R.T.T.) company in the Schippershuis on the Graslei in Ghent. He was a veteran and war volunteer of the First World War and a member of the National Fighters' Union (N.S.B.). He was injured in the eyes by a gas attack on the Yzer front, hence the dark glasses.

At the outbreak of the Second World War he brought office machines and money from the R.T.T. in safety. In July 1941 he joined the armed resistance through Gérard Willemot and became a soldier of the Secret Army, zone III, sector Ghent. He belonged to a sabotage group of refuge “Le Héron” under the command of Maurice Claeys (who died later at the same place and date). He had to go into hiding because of his activity. Their last assignment was to sabotage the German military headquarters in the R.T.T. building during the last week of August 1944, but he was previously arrested by the “Secret Field Police” (G.F.P.) on 19/08/1944. That night, 5 other R.T.T. employees were arrested. He was interrogated at the headquarters of the “Sicherheitspolizei und Sicherheitsdienst” (SIPO-SD), the Hubain villa on the corner of Krijgslaan and de Smet de Naeyerplein, and locked up in the Nieuwe Wandelen. He was transferred to Germany via Merksplas and stayed in the Neuengamme extermination camp, number 44,715. He was further transferred to the subcamp Meppen-Versen where he died on 06/12/1944.

His remains were buried with military honors in the plot of the Wester Cemetery in 1953 after a funeral mass in St. Peter's Church.

Jozef Speeckaert was born on April 1, 1907.  He was a young Belgian resistance fighter. Arrested and deported to the Blumenthal concentration camp where he was assassinated on January 5, 1945.

Leopold Boone born on September 27, 1907.  He was a young resistance member.

Arrested on June 1, 1944, he was deported to Neuengamme and killed on May 3, 1945 during the attack on Cape Arcona in Lübecker Bucht.

Charles Colyn was born on February 11, 1888. He was arrested on July 18, 1944 for acts of resistance. Deported to Neuengamme concentration camp and died in Blumenthal.

Ovchie Lempert was born in Bessarabia, in Kichineff on 01.20.1908. Engineer and resistance member, he was arrested on January 21, 1943, imprisoned at the Kazerne Dossin. Deported by the XXth convoy of 04.19.1943 to Auschwitz, where he was assassinated.

Michel Cloquet was born on 07.29.1921. He was arrested on 07.18.1944 for acts of resistance and sent to the Neuengamme concentration camp. Subsequently he was transferred to Blumenthal where he died on January 26, 1945.

The 6 were arrested on August 12, 1944 by the Geheime Feldpolizei in their workshop, the Optique et Instruments de Précision, a company that made optical instruments for the 'German Aviation'. Accusation: 'delay or sabotage in production'. They were first imprisoned in the Nieuwewandeling, but eventually ended up on the last large convoy to the Neuengamme concentration camp. They never came back.

Maurice Vandeputte was born on July 28, 1888. He was arrested for being a resistance member and deported to Gross-Rosen concentration camp.

Died in Gross -Rosen on 11.9.1944.

Robert Camiel Mussche was born in Wondelgem on December 7, 1912.  He was a Belgian poet and communist member of the Belgian resistance.

In 1944, Mussche went into hiding in Brussels where he stayed in an apartment for months until his betrayal.  He was arrested and taken on the very last means of transport to the Neuengamme concentration camp. At the end of the war, the camp was cleared and the prisoners were taken on ships to the Bay of Lübeck, with the intention of transferring them to neutral Sweden. However, the ships were bombarded by English planes who were afraid that the ships would carry German troops. Mussche died in the bombing in Lübecker Bocht on May 3, 1945.

Maurice De Vos, born in 1897, was a resistance fighter in WWII and arrested on September 5, 1944. He was interrogated in the buildings of the "Old Seminary" and ultimately murdered on September 6, 1944. Maurice was in the resistance with the BMW (Belgian Military Resistance). . He helped escapees, kidnapped people, and certainly also the pilots, to safety. Maurice was tortured and eventually shot in the head at the Reep. His body was dumped in the Reep, weighted down with a sewer cover.

Yvonne Fontaine, born on 23 July 1904, died 10 March 1985 lived on Sint-Joriskaai in Ghent and also had her doctor's practice there. Doctor Fontaine and the people around her were involved in many resistance activities during the Second World War.

The doctor himself hid a Jewish refugee for years in the house on Sint-Joriskaai, the Viennese biologist Martha Geiringer. Doctor Yvonne's ex-husband eventually reported the refugee to the Germans. Martha Geiringer later died in Auschwitz.

Jozef Impens, arrested on March 6, 1942 and shot on April 17, 1942 in Rieme. He was convicted as a resistance fighter of the 'Secret Army' in the Port of Ghent sector. For his actions against Nazi Germany, he received the death penalty 7 times during the trial. Ultimately buried in the secret cemetery in Hechtelt, grave no. 24.

At the corner of the Veldstraat in Gent lived the Bloch – Loeb - Levy family.  Sophie Loeb, wife Bloch was born on February 8, 1873, her daughter Margareta Bloch - Levy, born in Ghent on August 11, 1900, as well as Marcel Levy, husband of Margareta, born in Luxembourg on December 19, 1891.  They owned and managed a renowned Bakery-Pastry Shop. These three people were arrested because they were Jewish, locked up in the Dossin barracks and deported to Auschwitz.

Margareta Bloch and her husband Marcel Levy were deported by the 3rd convoy on August 15, 1942, Sophie Loeb-Bloch was deported by the XXth convoy on 04.19.1943.

"The Bloch bakery was founded in 1898 by the descendants of two families of Alsatian Jews under the name of Pâtisserie Viennoise. The grandmother of the current owner, Jacques Bloch, added a tea room to it. To do so, she took advantage of the absence of her husband, who was opposed to the idea, while the latter was away on a trip. .During World War II, the family fled Nazi persecution.

Jacques Bloch lives his youth in exile in New York. His mother kept the bakery, but in 1943, she was deported to Auschwitz from which she would not return. "After the war, we rekindled the oven with Nazi propaganda books," recalls Jacques Bloch, who is an anti-fascist, atheist and Freemason.  He calls himself a "bad Jew" since he opens on Saturdays. But, on Easter, he bakes unleavened bread, on the Festival of Lights (Hanukkah) he prepares "sufganiot", Hanukkah fritters for children. And on Purim, he bakes "hamantaschen" (Haman's Pockets), cakes filled with poppy seeds.

Gaston De Roo. Ghent resident. Surveyor. Socialist politician. Leaves collaborationist union. Sabotage actions. Arrest 1 June 1944. Died on December 25, 1944 in Dora concentration camp. 40 years old.