Stumbling Stones Zaanenlaan 79

These memorial stones (so called Stolpersteine of stumbling blocks) commemorate:

family Simons

The small copper plaques, in the pavement in front of houses of which the (mostly Jewish) residents were murdered by the Nazis, mention the name, date of birth and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death.

In many other cities, mainly in Germany but also in other European countries, the memorials also can be found. There are already many thousands of these plaques and their number is still counting. Almost all Stolpersteine are laid by the German artist himself, Gunter Demnig.

ALOMON SIMONS
December 3rd, 1896 (Utrecht) - July 2nd, 1943 (Sobibor)
79 ZAANEN AVENUE
Salomon Simons came from an orthodox Jewish family with eight children in Utrecht. He himself does not seem to have been very religious because his marriage to Johanna Annelise Woudstra on May 14, 1929 was only for the registry office in Enschede. They had two children, who survived the war in hiding.
Salomon studied veterinary medicine and worked as a veterinarian from 1936 at the Waren inspection service for the Haarlem area. On November 21, 1940, he was relieved of his duties by order of the municipal authorities because he was Jewish. He was charged with supervising the fish auction in IJmuiden and also regularly visited fishmongers, who sold fish in shops or peddled with it, and inspected smokehouses, herring factories, fish canning factories and markets. He also carried out scientific work on the quality of the various fish species. He recorded the results in a booklet that he published in 1940 in collaboration with A. van der Laan, director of the market system in Amsterdam. And even then he had the time to hold consultation hours at his home for Haarlemmers and their pets in the evening.
Transport from Westerbork to Sobibor 29 June 1943.
Murdered in Sobibor 2 July 1943.
He was 46 years old.

JOHANNA ANNELISE SIMONS-WOUDSTRA
November 29th, 1911 (Lünen) - July 2nd, 1943 (Sobibor)
79 ZAANEN AVENUE
Johanna Annelise was a student of Willem Andriessen, she graduated from what is now called the Conservatory of Amsterdam. For her final exams she played the second piano concerto by Saint-Saëns. Annelise had a preference for the French Impressionists such as Debussy, Ravel, and Fauré, which was also reflected in the many sheet music she left behind after her death. But she also made a test record on which she played Chopin exclusively. It is known from tradition how happy Annelise was living in Haarlem.
Transport from Westerbork to Sobibor 29 June 1943.
Murdered in Sobibor 2 July 1943.
She was 33 years old.

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Source

• Text: Reini Elkerbout
• Photos: Reini Elkerbout