Stumbling Stones Wallstraße 3

These memorial stones (Stolpersteine or stumbling blocks) commemorate members of the Schlösser family: Felix Schlösser, his brother Max Schlösser, his sisters Karoline Groenhijm and Emma de Wolff and their families. Stolpersteine for another brother, Rudolph Schlösser and his family are at Wessumer Straße 5.

* Felix Schlösser, born 1883, deported 1941, murdered in Riga.
* Erna Josef Schlösser, née Davids Jg. 1898, deportiert 1941 to Riga, Stutthof, murdered 13 November 1944.
* Leo Schlösser, born 1931, deported 1941, murdered in Riga.
* Bernhard Josef Schlösser, born 1935, deported 1941 to Riga, murdered in Auschwitz.

Felix Schlösser and Erna Davids were the parents of Leo and Bernhard Schlösser.

* Bertha Davids, née Sachs, born 1868, deported 1942, dead in Theresienstadt.

Bertha Davids was Erna Schlosser’s mother. Bertha’s brother Albert Sachs was listed as her relative on her Theresienstadt death certificate; it seems that he later died there, too. Dates and places of death are unknown for Bertha’s 4 other siblings Meyer, Henriette, Taubchen and Friede Sachs. (A baby sister Sophie died at age one.)

* Here were detained 12 citizens of Jewish faith from the Ahaus District, deported 28 July 1943, Theresienstadt; one woman survived.

This stolperstein commemorates the last 12 Jewish citizens living in the Ahaus district. Mostly elderly or ill, they were interned here in the "Ghettohaus" for a few months before being deported to Theresienstadt. Only one woman survived the deportation: Amalie Wolff, age 80+, from Vreden.

* Dr. Max Schlösser, born 1893, deported 1941, murdered in Riga.
* Emma Schlösser, née Wolff, born 1899, deported 1941, murdered in Riga.

Dr. Max Schlösser, brother of Felix Schlösser (above) and of Karoline and Emma (below) was held in a Gestapo prison and then in Dachau in late 1938. Later, he was deported from Münster in December 1941 to Riga. No information was seen on Emma Schlösser.

* Karoline Groenhijm née Schlösser, born 1879, deported 1943 from Holland, Sobibor, murdered 7 May 1943.
* Emma de Wolff née Schlösser, born 1886, deported 1942 from aus Holland, Auschwitz, murdered 27 November 1942.

Karoline Groenhijm-Schlösser’s parents and husband Mozes died before the war. One of her daughters - Theresa Bernardina Groenhijm – survived until 1990. Information on two sons Alex (b. 1914) and Bernhard (b. 1915) is lost. Another son and daughter were killed in 1943: Maurits Samuel Grönheim in Auschwitz and Emma Hendrina Grönheim in Sobibor.

Emma de Wolff-Schlösser, younger sister of Karoline and her husband Maurits Marcus de Wolff lived in Hengelo, Netherlands. The couple had no children. They were taken from Hengelo to Westerbork, deported to Auschwitz and killed there on the same day.

The small brass plaques, in the pavement in front of houses of which the (mostly Jewish) residents were persecuted or murdered by the Nazis, mention the name, date of birth and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death.

In many other cities and villages, mainly in Germany but also in other European countries, the memorials also can be found. There are already many thousands of these plaques and their number is still counting. Almost all Stolpersteine are laid by the German artist himself, Gunter Demnig.

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & Anne Palmer
• Photos: Arjan Vrieze (1), Jens-Erik Janke (2)
• Stadt Ahaus
• Heimatverein Ahaus von 1902
• Anne-Frank RealSchule Ahaus
• JoodsMonument.nl