Stumbling Stones Helmstedter

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.

#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.