Stumbling Stones Almstadtstraße 47

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

* Walter Löwenstein, born 1895, deported 1942 Auschwitz, missing, presumed dead.
* Paula Löwenstein née Sochaczewer, born 1895, deported 1942 Auschwitz, missing, presumed dead.
* Agathe Sochaczewer née Rosenthal, born 1865, deported 1942 Theresienstadt, missing, presumed dead.

Agathe Sochaczewer and her husband Berthold Sochaczewer, a tin foil merchant, lived at first at Gipsstraße 13 with their daughter Paula Sochaczewer, and their grandson Jürgen, who was born to Paula in 1925.

Paula was a writing assistant who worked for a Jewish charity, then as a cleaning woman. In 1938, she moved to a two-room apartment at this location (formerly Grenadierstr. 4a). She sublet one room out to Martin and Henriette Moser. The next year she married Walter Löwenstein, a decorated WWI veteran and chemist. He adopted Jürgen. Later the couple sublet space at Oranienburger Str. 87, while Jürgen, then 14 years old, stayed with his grandparents. Walter was forced out of his work as a perfume chemist at the Tietz Department Stores and forced into work in demolition and construction.

Berthold Sochaczewer’s fate is unknown. Agathe Sochaczewer was deported from Berlin on 07 August 1942 to Theresienstadt, where she died on 6 December that same year. Three days after her death, Paula and Walter Löwenstein were deported from Berlin in closed cattle cars on a train to Auschwitz. Of the approximately 1,000 Jews on that transport, only 2 are known to have survived.

Walter and Paula’s son, Jürgen Löwenstein survived. In September 1939 he entered the Hachsharah (Zionist leadership training program), moving from site to site for 2 years until he was deported to Auschwitz in 1942. There he was selected for forced labor and managed to live through Vienna, Mauthausen, a death march, and finally Gusen camp, where he was liberated by the Allies. His family was gone. He spent a year in Vienna to treat his TB and finally emigrated to Israel in 1949.

"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 (1), Paul David Doherty (2), Paul David Doherty (3), Paul David Doherty (4)
• Paul David Doherty (2,3,4)
• Stolpersteine in Berlin: Agatha Sochaczewer
• Wollheim Memorial: Israel Jürgen Löwenstein
• Yad Vashem: Deportation Transport 24, Berlin-Auschwitz
• Stolpersteine.eu