Helmstedter Straße, Berlin: 31 houses - at least 138 Jewish victims
During our Berlin years (2011-2013), we lived in Grunewald, where many of the deportation trains left to the sites of mass murder in Eastern Europe. Passing through the train station was always haunting. There are now many memorials and stumbling stones remembering the Shoah and it´s victims. The German artist Gunter Demnig remembers the victims of National Socialism by installing commemorative brass plaques in the pavement in front of their last address as free persons. They are known as Stolpersteine, stumbling stones. He cites the Talmud saying that "a person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten”. Walking through Berlin, one finds them everywhere. Yet, only 5,000 were installed by mid of 2013. In other words, one stumbling stone stands for more than 10 murdered Jews.
As important as these memorial sites are, the victims often remain abstract. A person is more than a name. They all had dreams, hopes and aspirations, moments of joy and moments of sadness, and they also struggled with the mundanity of life. Henry Schwarzbaum, our neighbour and owner of the house, where we lived, survived Auschwitz and the march of the dead. His memories are harrowing. But there are also some cherished photographs of family, memories of happy days before the Nazis arrived and most of the family was murdered.
To remind us of the victims lives, I started taking photographs not only of stumbling stones, but within their context. The doors through which the later victims walked. The windows, which are visual gateways between home and surroundings. The facades of the neighbourhood. Let´s remember the persons and lives behind the names.
The street in the Bavarian quarter, Bayerisches Viertel, in Berlin has only 31 apartment houses. The Bavarian quarter arose as a upper-middle class suburb during rapid industrial expansion at the turn of the 20th century. It attracted bohemia, middle class, artists and intellectuals. Over 16,000 Jews lived here around 1933. Amongst them Billy Wilder and the psychoanalyst and philosopher Erich Fromm, before both emigrated after the rise of the Nazis, and Albert Einstein, who went to a research visit to the US in 1932 but never returned.
#05
Hedwig Hesse née Bachur (1880) and Max Hesse (1880) deported to Riga on 19. Jan 1942 and murdered
#10
Siegfried Friedländer (1879) deported on 19.10.1942 to Riga and murdered.
Leo Friedländer (1880) deported to Theresienstadt on 12.1.1943 and then to Auschwitz on 9.10.1944.
Hedwig Simon née Brühl (1871) escaped into death on 31.8.1942.
Margarete Brühl (1884) escaped into death on 2.9.1942.
The well-known Egyptologist and art historian Hedwig Fechheimer née Brühl (1871) escaped into death on 31 Aug 1942.
#11/12
Dr Denny Blumenthal (1895) deported to Auschwitz in 1943 and murdered.
Charlotte Sachs (1896) deported to Theresienstadt on 24 August 1942 and murdered.
Selma Heimann née Schmuhl (1875) deported to Raasiku on 26. Sept 1942 and murdered
#19
Georg Schwarz (1879), forced labour at Ehrich & Graetz, and Leonore Schwarz née Blum (1883)deported 29 Jan 1943 to Auschwitz and murdered.
Maximilian Borchardt (1879) deported on 14. Nov 1941 and murdered in Minsk.
His mother Rosalie Borchardt née Kwilecki (1848), humiliated and stripped of human rights, died after her son Hugo and his family managed to escape.
#22
Ludwig Peiser (1875) imprisoned in Sachsenhausen in 1938, deported to Riga on 19 Jan 1942 and murdered.
Dagmar Peiser née Borchard (1883) and Ilse Peiser (1906) deported to Riga on 19 Jan 1942 and murdered.
#23
At least 92 Jews lived here, likey forced to do so after being evicted from their homes. Therefore, no stumbling stones were laid (stumbling stones are at the victim´s last, feely chosen home), but a memorial plaque was installed. Almost all were deported and murdered. The current inhabitants of the house made major efforts to research the fates of the former inhabitants. The resulting plaque remembers the murdered victims and sets a visible sign.
#24
Felix Auerbach (1889) and Lisbeth Auerbach née Adler (1899) deported to Auschwitz on 04 Dec 1899 and murdered.
Lilli Günther-Gutermann née Gallinek (1883) and Manon Irmgard Günther-Gutermann (1906) escaped to death on 29/20 Aug 1942 prior deportation.
Julie Lilienthal née Wittenberg (1885) deported to Auschwitz on 19 April 1943 and murdered.
Salo Wieruszowski (1886) deported to Sachsenhausen on 27 Mai 1942, then to Auschwitz and murdered.
Tina Wieruszowski née Kutner (1885) and her son Ernst Wieruszowski (1923 ) deported to Auschwitz on 3 Mar 1943 and murdered.
#27
Johanna Steilberg née König (1898) deported to Auschwitz on 1 Mar 1943 and murdered.
Julie König née Kulka (1873) deported to Auschwitz on 22 Jul 1942 and murdered.
Erich Stier (1886) and Martha Marie Stier née Fraustaedter (1888) deported to Auschwitz on 12 Jan 1943 and murdered.
Hedwig Erlanger née Bauer (1879) escaped into death on 2 Jun 1942.
Fransiska Hofmann née Erlanger (1901), Otto Georg Hofmann (1896) and Lotte Hofmann (1927) deported to Auschwitz on 29 Jan 1943 and murdered.
Alexander Brasch (1873) deported to Theresienstadt on 17 May 1943 and murdered.
Ludwig Hartwig (1868) deported to Loda / Litzmannstafdt on 29 Oct 1941 and murdered.
Hermann Isler (1871) and Ernestine Isler née Schacherl (1878) deported to Theresienstadt on 8 Jan 1943 and murdered.
Alfred Hirschberg (1891) deported to Theresienstadt on 17 Mar 1943 and murdered.
Else Pollak née Busse (1890) deported 19 Feb 1943 and murdered in Auschwitz.
Ermann Rachmann (1893) deported to Theresienstadt on 13 Jul 1944 and murdered in Auschwitz.
#29
Fritz Strauss (1904) and Katharina Strauss née. Weinberg (1906) and the children Evelyn (1926), Judith (1938), Hans-Michael (1936) deported to Riga on 15 Aug 1942 and murdered.
Frieda Baumgarten (1877) deported to Theresienstadt on 19 Sept 1942, from there to Treblinka and murdered.