Zwalm - 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 Zwalm

Beekmeersstraat 5: MICHEL VAN DE VELDE


Beekmeersstraat 5

hier geboren

MICHEL

VAN DE VELDE

geb. 1912

verzetsstrijder

‘onafhankelijkheidsfront’

gearresteerd 22.3.1943

gedeporteerd 1944

Neuengamme

bezweken 15.5.1945

Sandbostel

Beekmeersstraat 5

here was born

MICHEL

VAN DE VELDE

born 1912

resistance fighter

‘liberation front’

arrested 22.3.1943

deported 1944

Neuengamme

perished 15.5.1945

Sandbostel

Political Prisoner Michel Vande Velde, deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp in 1944. He died of exhaustion at Sandbostel, near Bremen, on May 15, 1944,