Stumbling Stone Westerseweg 16

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

* Ailko de Vries, born1918, murdered 16 May 1944, Zuidwolde (GR).

Ailko de Vries was born in August 1918 in Leens to Jakob de Vries and Martje de Vries-Boersma. He was from Warfhuizen and was in the Dutch resistance. He was engaged to be married. Records from the Amersfoort transit camp show that on 22 October 1943 he was released from there (prisoner no. 252, with first name "Tilko" but with the same birthdate and Warfhuizen residence as "Ailko"). In his release record, the destination was Deventer, 30-100km away depending on the route.

Ailko was in hiding for an unknown period in Zuidwolde, the town where he died. His stolperstein states that he lived at Zuidwolde's Westerseweg 16. But information on the timeline is missing. He may have been in hiding there at the time of the 25 April 1944 retaliatory raid in which Nazis arrested 148 males ages 18-25. He had not reached his 26th birthday. If he was there, was he missed by the Nazis? Was he seen but skipped? Or if he was arrested, was he ill or injured and among the eight men arrested who were immediately freed? His death registration certificate states he died in Zuidwolde on 16 May, but no cause was given. A different source states that the cause was mishandeling (ill-treatment, physical abuse), but this information was not elaborated or confirmed even as to time or location.

In a notice published 27 June 1944 in the Nieuwsblad van het Noorden newspaper, the family thanked people who helped during the illness [ziekte] and death of their "beloved Brother, Brother-in-law, Uncle, and Fiancé." From the language on his stolperstein, we can speculate that the "illness" might have been an injury from the raid, because he was dead (vermoord/murdered on his stolperstein) in Zuidwolde the following month. Ailko de Vries’s grave is in the Warfhuizen Municipal Cemetery.

"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."

Borne was the first location in the Netherlands where stolpersteine were placed -- on 29 November 2007.

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Source

• Text: Bert Deelman, Anne Palmer & Suzanne Matrosov-Vruggink
• Photos: Bert Deelman (1, 4), Suzanne Matrosov-Vruggink (2), Suzanne Matrosov-Vruggink (3), Nico Nienhuis (5)
• Zo as t was magazine: see item 22.2
• Nieuwsblad van het Noorden, 27 Juni 1944, p. 2
• WieWasWie: Ailko de Vries
• Graftombe.nl
• Stolpersteine.eu