Breda laid the first Stolperstein on Thursday, a stone as a monument to the victims of the Nazis during the Second World War. The first stumbling stone, as it is also called, is for the Jewish Gerhard van de Rhoer. He was betrayed by his neighbor in the Julianalaan in 1942 because he was not wearing his Star of David. He was deported to a prison camp in Austria, where he was murdered at the age of 58.
The story about Gerhard van de Rhoer is tragic and begins in Rotterdam when he leaves the city after the devastating bombardment of 14 May 1940. Van der Rhoer moves to Breda and starts a shoe and fabric shop in Balfoortstraat. He himself will live a little further down the Julianalaan with his family.
There he stands on a beautiful day in June 1942, in shirtsleeves, working in his garden. He took off his jacket, with the Star of David, because of the good weather. His neighbor sees this and reports him to the authorities. Gerhard van de Rhoer is arrested and transferred to the House of Detention.
It turns out to be deadly treason. Via camp Haaren and camp Amersfoort, Van de Rhoer eventually ends up in the Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen, where he dies at the age of 58. His wife Regina van de Rhoer-Druijf goes into hiding with the children.
It is now 85-year-old grandson and namesake Gerhard who nominated grandpa Van de Rhoer for a Stolpersteine in Breda. During the unveiling, which was done in the presence of mayor Paul Depla, he said that the neighbor would have been a German.
In any case, it is the foundation stone of a composite monument of about 120 individual Stolpersteine in about 50 different places in the city. Not only for murdered Jews, but also for other population groups such as Roma and Sinti.
“Freedom is not self-evident”, mayor Depla noted in response to the first Breda Stolperstein. “The heartbreaking images of the war in Ukraine that are now passing by emphasize this message all the more. The Stolpersteine contribute to awareness, commemoration and commemoration of the suffering that war and violence cause. They give the victims a face, tell them story and make the numbers we read and hear about become people.”