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. Those who stop at the Stumbling Stones learn who lived at the address in question, no more than a name, date of birth and, if available, date of death or brief information about their whereabouts. Since 1996, artist Gunter Demnig has laid 90,000 such memorials in 1,800 communities across Europe. There were 200 in Offenbach, some of which were laid on behalf of the ESO during the coronavirus pandemic, which also provides preparatory support to . Barbara Leissing from the Geschichtswerkstatt recalls that it was "respectful". Together with a number of other Offenbach residents, she works hard with lectures, research, city tours and an annual stumbling stone cleaning campaign to ensure that this legacy of the past is not forgotten.
"A person is only forgotten when his name is forgotten," says the Talmud, the most important book of Judaism. This is Demnig's credo and also the driving force behind the history workshop, explains Leissing: "But you can't learn much more from the Stumbling Stones than "here lived...". But we would like to tell you more about people like the Schönhof couple from Bismarckstraße 67, of whom nothing remained but one of countless suitcases in the Auschwitz concentration camp." That is why the brochure is now available, which initially presents the lives and fates of 200 murdered or expelled neighbors, business partners, classmates and friends. For the time being, because there are still many more blanks to fill, with brass plaques, but also with the stories of the lives that were lived.
Making history tangible
Before the story was told for the brochure, research had to be done: often all that was available at first was the name and a date in the deportation list, and usually also a registration card in the city archives. Who was Josef Kupczyk, who lived at August-Bebel-Ring 10 and died alone in Buenos Aires in 1944? Hans Stoffers from Ludwigstraße 42? "From 1942 onwards, false entries were deliberately made on the registration cards," Gabriele Hauschke-Wicklaus reports from her research, "then it says "traveled without stating place of residence" or "moved unknown", although the people were deported. You have to compare the data with the deportation lists, then at best you know something about a person's whereabouts." Or she contacts the Arolsen Archive, the world's largest repository of files on people persecuted by the Nazis, to find out more. However, relatives and descendants of those who perished also often helped and continue to help, who want to know more about the whereabouts of their relatives even seventy years after the end of the Second World War: "The Stolpersteine are also noticed abroad," says Ellen Katusic, "in general, people look very closely at what is happening here, in their former home town." In 2018, the elderly Irmgard Lorch from New York contacted the Geschichtswerkstatt because she wanted Stolpersteine for her family. As a result, the story of her father Sali, who was a partner in the global company Rowenta until its "Aryanization", can now be traced. Similarly, in the case of the married couple Bachrach, numerous descendants from Israel came forward who did not know that many other Jewish families were first quartered in the house of their grandparents Willy and Bertha opposite the synagogue at Kaiserstrasse 115 before they had to gather on the deportation square outside the front door. That is one aspect, but another is that the descendants want to know whether there are still people who remember or want to remember, Katusic continues.
Because the persecution was not limited to Jews, the fates of 30 people from other groups, mostly from the political resistance, are also told. Barbara Leissing believes that there is something to be learned from this today: "It is no longer as dangerous to get involved as it was back then."
The brochure "Offenbach Stumbling Stones - Against Forgetting" is available for a donation from the History Workshop and in bookshops. In addition to descriptions and photos, it contains two tables showing the locations of the Stolpersteine laid to date, one sorted by street name and the other by surname. The print run of 130 copies is deliberately limited, as a further 14 Stolpersteine will be laid in May 2022. Laying a Stolperstein costs 132 euros, and the Geschichtswerkstatt is also happy to receive donations and sponsors who take care of the condition of the stones.