Stumbling Stones Trommelstraße, corner of Lincolnstraße

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

* Alfred Siegbert Cohen, born 1923, deported 1941, Lodz, murdered.
* Gustav Joseph Cohen, born 1887, deported 1941, Lodz, murdered 2 March 1942.

Gustav Cohen married Rosi Meyer, and in 1913 they had a son, Werner Cohen. Gustav worked in a variety of occupations including newspaper publishing and tobacco sales. In 1919, Rosi died from the flu.

Gustav then married Martha Aron, a trained hat maker, and they also had a son, Alfred Siegbert Cohen. Werner and Alfred both lived with Gustav and Martha. Into the 1930s Gustav continued working in various tobacco shops, including a cigar shop he ran on the ground floor at this address. In the 1930s he and Martha divorced.

Werner Cohen was arrested during the 1938 November Pogramsnacht and sent to Sachsenhausen. He managed to emigrate to Shanghai the next spring.

From 1939 to 1941, Gustav and Alfred Cohen had tried without success to emigrate to Shanghai. He got as far as receiving a certificate showing he did not owe any money to the tax administration and on 18 February 1940 having documents confirming his emigration to Shanghai with costs regulated by the Reich’s Association of Jews in Germany. But in May, he had to appear before the Foreign Exchange Office, which decided he could not emigrate yet. A note on his form suggests that at final check-in he needed to have his hand-luggage inspected and he was to present a sealed package with silver items. But he had no money and, one can assume, no silver. Starting on 19 September 1941, Gustav and Alfred had to wear the Star of David. In October, they were moved to an apartment where Martha Cohen was staying.

Records of the transport to Lodz on 25 October 1941 included Gustav Joseph Cohen, his former wife Martha Cohen née Aron, and their son Alfred Siegbert Cohen. They arrived on 01 November. Martha died there on 12 February 1942, Gustav on 2 March; and their son Alfred was killed with gas in one of the trucks that went to from Lodz to Chelmno.

"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 Hamburg.

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: Bernd Carstensen (1), Bernd Carstensen (2)
• Stolpersteine Hamburg: Gustav Joseph Cohen
• Stolpersteine.eu