Stumbling Stones Rotebühlplatz 37

These small, brass, memorial plaques (stolpersteine or stumbling stones) commemorate:

* Ignatz Lentschner, born 1873, "Poland Action" 1938, deported 1940, murdered in Lodz / Litzmannstadt.
* Lea Lentschner née Sklarek, born 1881, "Poland Action" 1938, deported 1940, murdered in Lodz / Litzmannstadt.
* Richard Lentschner, born 1903, fled 1938 USA.
* Walter Lentschner, born 1906, fled 1933 USA.

Ignatz Lentschner, born in the Ukraine, and Lea Sklarek, born in Poland, married and had two sons, Richard and Walter. Ignatz was a businessman – the owner of a furniture shop with 14 employees. Walter was his managing director. With the anti-Jewish laws, Ignatz had to leave his business at the end of 1933, and the next year he had no further income.

Walter Lentschner is said to have emigrated to the US in 1933. His niece, however, said he was interned at Camp des Milles as an undesirable (Jew and dissident) until March 1941, when he emigrated to the US. In 1970 from a New York City address, he submitted written testimony to Yad Vashem about his parents.

In 1936, Ignatz and Lea Lentschner were probably forced to move to another Stuttgart location. In 1938, Lea and Ignatz were exiled from Germany as part of the Poland Action. They were deported to Lodz/Litzmannstadt in 1940, and traces of them were lost. They were officially declared dead in May 1945.

Richard Lentschner went to the US in 1938 and died in Boston in 1987.

"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."

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: Marc Comley
• Stolpersteine in Stuttgart: Lea und Ignatz Lentschner
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• Stolpersteine.eu