14 new Stolpersteine commemorate further victims of National Socialism

The brass plates are ten by ten centimetres in size and can be found on sidewalks in many places in Europe, including Offenbach, of course. They mark the empty spaces left behind by National Socialism. The very houses in which people persecuted by the Nazi regime lived until they were forced to emigrate or were deported and murdered. Persecuted because they were Jews, Roma, Sinti, trade unionists, communists, Jehovah's Witnesses or physically or mentally handicapped. Since 1996, artist Gunter Demnig has laid 90,000 such memorials in 1,800 communities across Europe. 200 of them in Offenbach, and on Thursday, May 12, 2022, another 14 stones will be added. The Geschichtswerkstatt is using them to commemorate three Jewish families, a Jewish lecturer and a young woman who was murdered in Hadamar because of her disability. Demmig will begin laying the stones at 9 a.m. in front of the house at Engelsgässchen 19 in Bürgel, followed by the Stolpersteine at Kaiserstraße 82, Lützowstraße 4, Hermannstraße 35 and Frankfurter Straße 25 at intervals of around 30 to 45 minutes. Gunter Demnig will lay the last Stolperstein at around 12 p.m. on this day at Schlossstraße 31 in front of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in memory of the former lecturer. The current president of the HfG, Bernd Kracke, will be present. Relatives of the victims will also be present at the laying of the Stumbling Stones at Kaiserstrasse 82 and Lützowstrasse 4.

Finally, the Geschichtswerkstatt invites you to the Haus der Stadtgeschichte at 6 pm. There, the people commemorated by the new Stumbling Stones will be introduced once again.