Stumbling Stones Drakestraße 47

These memorial stones (Stolpersteine or stumbling blocks) commemorate:
* Dr. Arthur Arnstein, born 1866, deported 1942, Theresienstadt, dead 3 November 1942.
* Sara Michaelis née Frankenstein, born 1871, deported 1942, Theresienstadt, dead October 1942.
* Kurt Julius Friedländer, born 1904, deported 1943, Auschwitz, murdered 31 December 1943.
* Erna Friedlände née Seelig, born1902, deported 1943, Auschwitz, murdered.
* Hans Kaplan, born 1920, deported 1943, Auschwitz, murdered 3 April 1943.
* Marlene Kaplan née Berger, born 1920, deported 1943, murdered in Auschwitz.
* Frank Cohn, born 1928, deported 1943, Auschwitz, murdered.

Arthur Arnstein was born in Berlin and from 1902 he practiced medicine here at Drakestraße 47. In 1933, the Nazis regime issued orders to eliminate Jewish doctors from the public health service: payment was denied and non-Aryan physicians’ health insurance was terminated. Then Jewish doctors were allowed only to treat Jews, but they had no access to medicines. Then their status was reduced further from doctor to health care provider, and only 145 were allowed to practice in Berlin. Dr. Arnstein was deported on an Elder Transport from Berlin in September 1942 and was dead less than 2 months later. No information was found on the fates of his wife and their child.

Sara Michaelis lived as a subtenant at Drakestraße 47. Nothing is known about her other than she was a lady of "private" means. She may have been Dr. Arnstein’s housekeeper. She was deported the day before Dr. Arnstein, also on an Elder Transport to Theresienstadt. She died there the next month.

The other 5 residents of this house moved there from other Berlin locations in 1943. All were deported to Auschwitz on the same day – 04 March 1943.

Kurt Friedländer, a businessman, and his wife Erna had been forced in January 1943 to move from another part of Berlin to Drakestraße 47. They were deported two months later. Although Kurt had 2 non-Jewish grandparents, he was considered Jewish.

Hans Kaplan, a tailor, and his wife Marlene lived in Charlottenburg in Berlin before moving to Drakestraße 47 as their last place before deportation.

Frank Cohn, Marlene’s brother, started school in Berlin 1934, and then attended a Jewish primary school. In his 1943 declaration of assets (made at age 15), he stated that he worked for a textile factory. His family name was Cohn because in 1938 the Nazis cancelled the family’s earlier name change to Berger and forced the family to use the family name of his father’s stepfather, Moritz Cohn.

"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: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: Thom Quine
• Stolpersteine in Berlin: Drakestraße 47
• Stolpersteine.eu