Stumbling Stones Ebertplatz 15

These small brass memorial plaques (Stolpersteine or stumbling stones) commemorate:
* Dr. Arthur Heidenheim, born 1888, fled to Holland, deported, murdered in Auschwitz.
* Betty Heidenheim née Berg, born 1892, fled to Holland, deported, murdered in Auschwitz.

Arthur Heidenheim was a lawyer in Cologne since 1919. On 31 March 1933, the day before the national boycott of Jewish businesses, he and other lawyers were arrested, loaded onto a garbage truck, and slowly driven around the city. Arthur and his wife Betty Berg fled to Holland in April 1937. In May 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands. Arthur and Betty gave some supplies to their 18-year-old son, Dieter, who bicycled to the shore of the North Sea and joined several others in a small fishing skiff. They were picked up 6 days later by a British destroyer. They ended up in Canada, where Dieter lived until his death at age 92.

Arthur and Betty stayed and perhaps went into hiding. They had an address in Nieuwer Amstel/ Amstelveen in April 1942. Almost 2 years later, on 25 February 1944, they were deported from the Westerbork transit camp on a passenger train with about 800 others, arriving in Theresienstadt the next day. Then on 18 May 1944 they were deported with about 2,500 others to Auschwitz. Arthur and Betty Heidenheim were not among the 301 known survivors.

"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."

For more information and pictures, please visit Stolpersteine in Cologne.

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: safesurfer
• Kölner Rechtsanwälte im Nationalsozialismus, pp. 22-23
• Jewiki: Stolpersteine im Kölner Stadtteil
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• Yad Vashem Deportation Database
• Joods Monument
• Interview with granddaughter Martha Heidenheim
• Stolpersteine.eu