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Stumbling Stone Rotlintstraße 41

This small brass memorial plaque (Stolperstein or stumbling stone) commemorates:
* Willy Zimmerer, born 1901, admitted 17 March 1944 Weilmünster Sanatorium, 'relocated' (‘verlegt’) 13 October 1944 Hadamar Sanatorium, murdered 18 December 1944.

Willy Zimmerer’s father had a tobacco shop in Frankfurt. As a teenager, Willy began an apprenticeship to become a merchant and was doing well. But at age 18, he became ill with flu, fever, meningitis. Afterwards, Willy changed into a shy, passive, even powerless person. He barely spoke, communicating instead in writing. Willy’s mother died in 1935; his father returned to Baden-Württemberg. Willy was then cared for by his sisters in their house here on Rotlinstraße. When their house was bombed, they all had to move. The sisters took Willy to the university hospital for care. From there he was was transferred to the Weilmünster Sanatorium, and then to Hadamar, a euthanasia center, where he was murdered at age 45.

Willy Zimmerer’s stolperstein was the 70,000th memorial in the Stolpersteine project, installed by Gunter Demnig on 23 October 2018. Demnig himself said, "Ultimately there's no reason to celebrate, because 70,000 stones are 70,000 stones too many."

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