Stumbling Stone Botzstraße 10

This small, brass memorial plaque (Stolperstein or stumbling stone) commemorates:

* Marie Straubel née Kern, born 1864, before deportation killed herself, 20 April 1944.

Background

When Marie Kern was 18 years old, she converted to Protestantism and married Rudolf Straubel. They had four sons -- Heinrich, Werner, Wolfgang and Harald. She was active in the women’s movement in the early 1900s. In WW1 she volunteered with the Red Cross, and after the war she advocated for needy widows. Rudolf Straubel worked at Zeiss in Jena, and was their scientific director for many years. He was instrumental from the beginning during WW1 in establishing the Zeiss projection planetarium – a fact which the Nazis covered up. In 1933, Zeiss administrators told Straubel either to divorce his Jewish wife or to leave Zeiss. He chose Marie.

Both Marie and Rudolf Straubel were arrested on 10 November 1938 during the Reichspogromnacht. They were released, but the family was not free from trouble. Marie’s sister, Therese Zuckerkandl, killed herself in Jena in 1942. Rudolf died of kidney cancer in December 1943. After Marie recived the order for her deportation the next spring, she killed herself -- on 20 April 1944. Her cousin Helene Langer killed herself in Jena two months later.

Stolpersteine for Marie Straubel’s sister Therese Zudkerkandl and cousin Helene Langer are at Weinbergstrasse 4a.

"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 victim’s with the 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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