Margraten - 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 Margraten

’t Rooth 24:  JOANNES HUBERTUS MATHEUS SPEETJENS


’t Rooth 24

hier woonde

MATHIEU SPEETJENS

geb. 1919

vermoord 5.3.1945

Mauthausen

t Rooth 24

here lived

MATHIEU SPEETJENS

born 1919

murdered 5.3.1945

Mauthausen

Farm hand Mathieu Speetjens for example. Living at 't Rooth in Margraten, he and his two brothers did odd jobs for the Belgian resistance group De Witte Bende. He took people in hiding to their secret, new addresses and provided forged food stamps. In July 1944 he was captured during a meeting with the group in Maastricht. He died in Mauthausen. After the war his parents built an altar at 't Rooth and he had another daughter "posthumously".

 

Memorial plaque inside the chapel.