Stumbling Stones Brehmstraße 84

These Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) commemorate:

* Fritz Grunewald, born 1892, fled 1936 to Belgium, interned at Mechelen, deported 1943, murdered in Auschwitz.
* Emmy Grunewald née Weisskopf, born 1894, fled 1936 to Belgium, interned at Mechelen, deported 1943, murdered in Auschwitz.

Fritz Grunewald served in WWI. He and Emmy Weisskopf married in 1919 and had 3 children. His iron wholesale business was successful. But in 1936, Fritz, under Gestapo suspicion, left Germany, looking for a place for his family. Their son Klaus (age 15) went to Amsterdam to study art. Their daughters left Düsseldorf also: Lore (16) went to Berlin to study child care and nursing, and Margot (10) went to stay with her grandmother in Wuppertal. Emmy travelled, visiting each member of the family.
When Fritz found a place and a work permit in Belgium, Lore joined her parents there. Then Emmy learned she could not get the papers to get her mother and Margot out of Germany. Emmy and Margot walked across the border in 1939, and her mother stayed, dying just 5 months later. After Germany invaded Belgium in May 1940, the Grunewalds’ problems began again. Starting in 1942, they went into hiding. All 3 children were safe in a boarding school run as a safe haven for many by a sympathetic director, Eugene Cougnet. Fritz and Emmy moved again in 1942. In July 1943, they were found and sent to the transit camp at Mechelin/Malines and deported from there to Auschwitz.

Eugene Cougnet, teacher and member of the Belgian resistance, was deported in 1943 and did not survive the war. He was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. His protection saved the three Grunewald children. Margot’s daughter, Charlotte Massey, wrote the article on which this article is based.

"Stolpersteine" is an art project for Europe by Gunter Demnig to commemorate victims of National Socialism (Nazism). Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) are small, 10x10cm brass plaques placed in the pavement in front of the last voluntary residence of (mostly Jewish) victims who were murdered by the Nazis. Each plaque is engraved with the victim’s name, date of birth, and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death. By doing this, Gunter Demnig gives an individual memorial to each victim. One stone, one name, one person. He cites the Talmud: "A human being is forgotten only when his or her name is forgotten."

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Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: Harald Malte Schwarz (1,2) & Kürschner (3)
• Wikimedia Commons - 2
• Wikimedia Commons - 3
• Detroit Free Press, "A dangerous, desperate journey", 17 Dec 2015
• Stolpersteine.eu