Stumbling Stones Woldsenweg 13

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

* Henriette Cohens née Behrens, born 1885, deported 1942, deported again, murdered.
* Siegmund Goldschmidt, born 1887, deported 1941, Łodz, murdered.
* Mathilde Laski née Kallmess, born 1888, deported 1941, Łodz, murdered on 12 July 1942.

Henriette Cohens (or Cohen) was born in Hamburg with the name Behrens. Little is known about her. She rented rooms at this Woldsenweg 13 location and then sublet space to Siegmund Goldschmidt and to Mathilde Laski. According to Yad Vashem (based on the German Federal Archives), Henriette was deported to Lodz on 25 October 1941 – the same date as her subletters, Siegmund Goldschmidt and Mathilde Laski. According to "Stolpersteine in Hamburg," Henriette Cohen was further deported to the Chelmno extermination camp and murdered there on 20 April 1942.

Siegmund Goldschmidt was born in Twistringen, where the extended Goldschmidt family was well-respected. Siegmund had no special vocational training but learned about storekeeping, especially from his brothers. He started his own grocery store but gave it up in 1935. In 1937, he moved to Hamburg to escape small-town anti-Semitism. It is not known what business he did there, but he seems to have worked with his brothers. And – unusual for Jewish people at that time -- he had income until 1940/1941. (However, his income was confiscated by the government, and he was given an allowance from it.) On 25 October 1941, he was deported from this address to Lodz with Henriette Cohen(s) and Mathilde Laski. Siegmund Goldschmidt was then deported again on 11 May 1942 to the Chelmno extermination camp. (Siegmund was one of 11 children siblings, with 4 dead before World War II. Of the 7 remaining, Siegmund and 3 sisters were killed in the Holocaust. Three brothers survived by leaving Germany in the 1930s.)

Mathilde Laski. Mathilde Kallmess was born in Hamburg. She married Johann Walter Laski in 1912, who was the founder and owner of a house and insurance brokerage. They had three children – Elfriede, Annemarie, and Arnold. Elfriede died at age 17. The family lived at two locations in Hamburg before settling at Woldsenweg 13, where they lived with Henriette Cohen. In the 1930s, Walter was forced to close his business. He appealed but was soon afterwards arrested for "Rassenschande" (race defilement – relations between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans). He was denounced by two former clerks. He attempted suicide. He finally "confessed" to avoid being sent to a concentration camp. Then in 1940 he was offered freedom if he promised to leave Germany within 3 days. At the same time, Mathilde had been mentally ill from "nerves" for many years. In 1939 a guardian (lawyer) was appointed to manage her care and in 1940 a nurse. She was not a candidate for emigration. Walter managed to get to Shanghai in 1940. The next year, on 25 October, Mathilde Laski and her nurse were deported to Lodz and murdered. In China, Walter survived a ghetto organized by the Japanese, and then in 1946 he emigrated to the US to be near daughter Annemarie. Mathilde and Walter’s son Arnold emigrated to Argentina.

"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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