Laying stumbling blocks to commemorate Jewish victims of the Nazi regime remains a sensitive issue. An emotional appeal from councilor Rob Slewe of Zelfstandig Bloemendaal resulted in a charged discussion in the municipal council last week.
The plan to lay memorial stones for Mathilde and Samuel Barends in Aerdenhout has been causing a stir since last summer unrest among current Jewish residents of the address. Politicians are also not left untouched by the issue.
Rob Slewe is visibly upset when he discusses the state of affairs surrounding the stumbling blocks in the council chamber. He says it is shameful that, in his opinion, the municipality of Bloemendaal makes a fuss about stones measuring ten by ten centimeters on public roads.
After a request for placement by the Zikaron foundation, this raised many objections from the residents of the address on Distellaan in Aerdenhout. The municipality understands that emotion and refuses the laying. That doesn’t happen often.
The residents of the address leave after the commotion still agreed with the placement of the stumbling stones. Not right in front of the front door, but slightly to the left on the sidewalk.
Words dirty
Initiator Eddy Maarsen of the Zikaron foundation regrets that permission only came after the unrest that had arisen. “Now more words have been spent on this whole issue than on what it should actually be about: commemorating the Barends family,” he previously told NH.
What are stumbling blocks?
Stumbling stones, or stolpersteine as they are actually called, are square, gold-colored monuments that lie in front of the houses of people who were murdered during the Second World War. The pictures contain the name, date of birth, deportation date and place and date of death of the victims. It is a project by the German artist Gunter Demnig. The commemorative plaques are located throughout Europe.
Maarsen says that he has sent four letters to the residents of the address on Distellaan since April of this year. He got no response. “We had a conversation once, but their position was already established.”
Jewish roots
The current residents have Jewish roots, who find it painful to be reminded daily of the loss of their own family.
“According to the creator, Gunther Demnig, you trip in your head when you walk on the stones”
That is actually exactly what the idea behind the memorial stones is. “According to the creator, Gunther Demnig, you stumble in your head when you walk over the stones,” says Reini Elkerbout of the Struikelstenen Foundation Haarlem.
This foundation of Haarlem citizens, supported by the municipality of Haarlem, has set itself the goal of giving all 733 perished Jewish Haarlem residents a stumbling stone at the address where they last lived in freedom.
With eleven volunteers they organize a commemoration ceremony three times a year for relatives of the murdered Jews. About 25 stones are laid at a time.
Detective work
Each stone costs the volunteers a huge amount of time. A permit for the installation must be requested from the municipality, which must then check whether there are any pipes under the sidewalk in question. Researching the history and tracing surviving relatives also requires a lot of detective work. And a lot of time and energy is invested in making personal contact with the current residents of the addresses in question.
Reini Elkerbout, Clara Kemper and Anja van Dam ring doorbells everywhere. “Then we stand on the sidewalk again and I have to say that we are really not Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Reini is a spry eighty-something, but spends almost as much time on the foundation as she does on a full-time job.
“When we talk to the current residents, we immediately tell them that the stumbling blocks will be there, not whether they want it. Because that has been agreed with the municipality. It is public land.”
Walking over a grave
“During that conversation we look carefully at how people react,” adds Clara Kemper. “We would like to involve people. And they can think about the location.” At first the intention was to actually lay the stones in front of the door. That evoked a lot of emotions. Sometimes it feels like you’re walking over a grave.
The location of the bush stones is now carefully discussed with the residents. Residents in Leidsestraat, for example, thought it would be a good idea to have five stolpersteine placed right in front of the front door for the Zurel family. And in Kijkduinstraat, the residents chose a spot next to the entrance, as can be seen in the video below.
Text continues after video.
Gerson Isaza is the road builder in Haarlem who lays all the stumbling blocks in front of the houses of deported Jews. – NH News
Personal contact with the residents of the addresses for stumbling blocks has a number of advantages. “If there is something wrong with the stones later, those people will know where to find us quickly,” Clara thinks. “And they have seen us, they know who we are and why we are doing this. That gives confidence.”
Counter at 180
Clara and Reini sit together at the kitchen table to organize the next stone laying in Haarlem. Thirty stolperstones will be laid on November 9. This is the date of Kristallnacht in 1938 where the Jews in Germany were attacked en masse. And then the counter in Haarlem stands at 180 stones, a quarter of the total of 733 memorial stones for perished Jewish Haarlem residents.
On that day, the two stumbling stones for Mathilde and Salomon Barends are also laid on the Distellaan in Aerdenhout. The residents of the house have been invited to the unveiling. Eddy van Maarsen hopes that they will be present at the ceremony.
“Who are we to make a fuss about that?”
Van Maarsen is happy with the support of councilor Rob Slewe. He submitted a motion to allow stumbling blocks in the municipality of Bloemendaal at all times, unless immediate family members of the deceased Jewish victims live in the house.
Because this motion failed in the political discussion, he will come up with a new proposal. In doing so, he and the other political parties want to indicate how important they find it to ultimately have all 132 stumbling blocks laid for Bloemendaal. “Because who are we to make a fuss about that?”
But to take into account the sensitivities surrounding stumbling blocks, the majority of the municipal council does not want to be too strict. “Is this the right thing? You are almost making it mandatory and you are taking away the conversation about it,” VVD councilor Eelke van Tienhoven expresses that trepidation.
By mail
A personal conversation and not just letters to the address of the intended location for the stumbling stones could be the approach, just as in the neighboring municipality of Haarlem. But that takes a lot of time, involvement and commitment from volunteers. In Amsterdam and Utrecht, too, the municipality only informs residents by letter.
Reini Elkerbout also experienced this this year, when she wanted to lay stones for her own family members in the Vechtstraat in Amsterdam. “We then went door to door, including the neighbors. Because we now know from our experience in Haarlem how well that works.”
Check the map below to see where stumbling blocks have already been laid in Haarlem. Behind the yellow squares are the names of the murdered Jewish Haarlem residents, sometimes with a photo, video or article added.