Stumbling Stones in Quickborn

Stolpersteine (Stumbling stones)is a project by the Cologne artist Gunter Demnig. Since 2009, eight Stolpersteine have been laid here in Quickborn.

"Auschwitz was the destination and terminus, but in the apartments and houses the incomprehensible, the horror began, therefore the victims should also be remembered there" (Gunter Demnig)



Gunter Demnig

What are Stumbling Stones

Stumbling stones are paving stones laid in the pavement, on the head side of which a 10 x 10 cm brass plate is attached which gives the name, date of birth as well as date and circumstances of death of an individual. The stones commemorate people who were persecuted by the National Socialists and died in the process. Some are here in Quickborn. 


The Cologne artist Gunter Demnig commemorates the victims of the Nazi era by placing brass memorial plaques in the pavement in front of their last freely chosen place of residence. 

By following Gunter Demnig's motto "A person is only forgotten when their name is forgotten",Stumbling Stones were laid in Quickborn for eight victims.

8 Stumbling Stones for Nazi Victims in Quickborn

Their names and destinies





MURDERED HERE

PAUL WARNECKE

BORN 1914

BY SA

SHOT 5.3.1933


(Inscription on the Stumbling Stone for Paul Warnecke, located on Harksheider Weg, Birkenwäldchen)



Paul Warnecke was a trained locksmith and belonged to the Communist Party, as well as to one of the communist house protection squadrons which were founded in 1932 in the territory of the Reich to protect themselves from attacks by the SA.

They were opposed to the patrols of "Haus-und Werkschutz” * of the National Socialists.

On the night of the Reichstag election on 5.3.1933, groups of both organizations met.

After being asked to stop, the unarmed Communists fled. As a result, several shots were fired at them. One of them fatally hit 19-year-old Paul Warnecke.

*(Organization policing workers in factories etc.) 


HERE LIVED

RICHARD WEISE

BORN 1889

ARRESTED MARCH 1937

BUCHENWALD

"TRANSFERRED" 15.7.1941

PIRNA-SONNENSTEIN

MURDERED 15.7.1941

AKTION T4 *


*(systematic assassination of handicapped individuals)



(Inscription on the Stumbling Stone for Richard Weise, located on Lerchenweg / Grandweg, Quickborn-Heide) 


Richard Weise was classified by the National Socialists as a "professional criminal", a term provided by the "Law against Dangerous Habitual Criminals".


He was an editor and freelance writer, a nonconformist. He lost his job, became sickly and was then considered a "work-shy".


After more than 4 years, Richard Weise was transferred from the Buchenwald concentration camp to the "euthanasia" facility Sonnenstein near Pirna and murdered there on 15 July 1941.

HERE LIVED

MAGDA JANZEN

BORN 1913

PATIENT IN

VARIOUS SANATORIUMS

"TRANSFERRED" 31.7.1941

BERNBURG SANATORIUM

MURDERED 31.7.1941

AKTION T4 *


(systematic assassination of handicapped individuals)


(Inscription on the Stumbling Stone for Magda Janzen, located at Kieler Straße 138


Magda Janzen, born on 4.9.1913 in Hamburg-Schnelsen, lived with her mother and two sisters in Quickborn at Kieler Str. 138. Due to a mental illness, she was probably hospitalized several times, finally from February 1934 in the Landesheil- und Pflegeanstalt near Neustadt in Holstein.

 

From here, Magda Janzen was transferred to the Königslutter intermediate institution for a few weeks in mid-June 1941 and then "transferred" with 31 other patients to the "euthanasia" institution Bernburg on 31.07.1941. Like all other patients, she was murdered by carbon monoxide poisoning on the day of admission.

 

Magda Janzen was only 27 years old. Her urn was buried on 03.09.1941 in the Quickborn church cemetery. 

HERE LIVED

MARTHA WEIDMANN

NÉE JAEKEL

BORN 1902

SINCE 1933 PATIENT

IN VARIOUS SANATORIUMS

"TRANSFERRED" 22.6.1943

HADAMAR

MURDERED 2.7.1943


(Inscription on the Stumbling Stone for Martha Weidmann, located at Heinrich-Lohse-Straße 5) 



Martha Weidmann, née Jaekel, was born on 18 June 1902 into a working-class family in Altona. At the age of 26, she married Alfred Weidmann, who ran a tailor's shop in Hamburg. Martha Weidmann suffered from a mental illness since the beginning of the 30s. When her husband annulled the marriage due to the health impairment of his wife, Martha Weidmann was taken in by her parents in Hamburg-Barmbek. In June 1938, the family moved to Quickborn in Heinrich Lohse-Straße.


The intermittent illness led to several hospital stays, the last one from 1940. One day after the death of her father, Martha Weidmann was picked up confused on 22 February 1940 in Hamburg St. Georg and taken to the Langenhorn mental hospital. Her mother tried unsuccessfully to take her daughter into home care.

 

At that time, the Langenhorn institution served as a hub for "euthanasia" transports in the Hamburg area. More than 2,600 psychiatric patients were "transferred" from here to various "sanatoriums" in Germany and did not survive the time of National Socialism. Martha Weidmann was one of these victims.

 

Together with 49 other patients, she was "transferred" to the Hadamar mental hospital on 22 June 1943, where she officially died of pneumonia ten days later. The urn of the murdered woman was buried on 2 September 1943 in Quickborn Nordfriedhof.

HERE LIVED

PAUL THOMSEN

BORN 1908

SINCE 1934 VARIOUS SANATORIUMS

"TRANSFERRED" 21.11.1941

TIEGENHOF SANATORIUM

MURDERED 14.5.1944


(Inscription on the Stumbling Stone for Paul Thomsen, located at Kieler Straße 157)


Paul Thomsen was born on 24.12.1908 in Barmstedt. He learned the butcher's trade. In 1929 he moved in with his parents in Quickborn. In the summer of 1934, Paul Thomsen suddenly fell ill and was sent to the Pinneberg District Hospital. There, symptoms of agitation appeared as they are characteristic of schizophrenia. This led to his transfer on 10.07.1934 to the Landes-Heil-und Pflegeanstalt Neustadt, a public nursing home for people with mental illnesses. The doctors of the sanatorium saw Paul Thomsen as a case of "hereditary disease" and obtained a "legally binding" sterilization order in order not to "burden" future generations with the offspring of mentally ill people, according to Nazi logic.


After his release from the Landesheilanstalt at the end of 1934, Paul Thomsen was readmitted at the institution in Neustadt in May 1941 after the disease broke out again. In September 1941, the so-called "Aktion Brandt" began the "transfer" of people with mental illnesses or disabilities from here, to make room for disabled war victims.


On 28 Sep. 1941 Paul Thomsen was taken to the already overcrowded Neuruppin mental institution and from there to the Gauheilanstalt Tiegenhof on 21 Nov. 1941. He died there on 14 May 1944 at the age of 35.

HERE LIVED

HERMANN HINRICHS

BORN 1878

ARRESTED AUGUST 1944

NEUENGAMME

MURDERED 18.11.1944


(Inscription on the Stumbling Stone for Hermann Hinrichs, located at Fritz-Reuter-Str. 3)

Hermann Hinrichs was a retired Social Democrat and trade unionist. He was involved in the settlers' association Quickborn-Heide and participated in the social life of the former village community Quickborn. Politically a harmless person. A grandson said that after 1933 his grandfather had no more contact with active Nazi opponents, but sharply rejected the Nazi system and expressed his opinion in familiar circles. "He didn't mince his words".


His death is to be seen as a consequence of the assassination attempt on Hitler. As a deterrent and out of revenge, the National Socialists decided on "Aktion Gewitter", an arbitrary mass arrest, especially of members of the SPD and trade unions.


Hermann Hinrichs was also affected by this action. In August 1944 he was arrested and died officially of heart failure on 18.11.1944. It can be assumed with great probability that he was murdered in the Neuengamme concentration camp or died as a result of inhuman treatment. Hermann HInrichs was 66 years old.

HERE LIVED

MAX KELLERMANN

BORN !897

ARRESTED SEVERAL TIMES

CONCENTRATION CAMP

SUBCAMP FINKENWERDER

UNTIL 31.12.1944


(Inscription on the Stumbling Stone for Max Kellermann, located at Friedrichsgaber Straße 37)

Max Kellermann's story is the story of a man who repeatedly came into conflict with those in power. In August 1933, the former policeman complained to the chief officer that he had been mistreated by the SA after his house had been searched by the SA. This was followed by a denunciation by a housewife, as a result of which he was taken into "protective custody", against which he in turn wrote a letter of complaint. In 1937 followed another prison sentence for insulting an official. He again appealed, which only extended his prison sentence.

 

He was beaten and arrested for "communist activities" and "denigration of the National Socialist movement". Max Kellermann was not intimidated, and he did not stop demanding his rights. He was then arrested by the Hamburg Gestapo and transferred to the Neuengamme concentration camp.

 

He died on 31.12.1944 in the subcamp of the Deutsche Werft shipyard in Hamburg-Finkenwerder at the age of 46. Was it naivety or courage that made him act like this? We don't know. 

HERE LIVED

JAN SODCZYK

BORN 1924

ARRESTED MARCH 1945

KIEL LABOUR CAMP

DEAD DUE TO CONSEQUENCES OF IMPRISONMENT

20.4.1945



(Inscription on the Stumbling Stone for Jan Sodczyk, located at Friedenstraße 10)

Jan Sodczyk was born in Baranow, Poland, and at the age of 18 was forced to work on the farm of farmer and chief officer Wilhelm Kolz in Quickborn-Renzel. There, according to Kolz, he showed "objectionable behaviour" by, for example, playing cards and secretly using the bicycle of the head of the office, which the latter did not like at all.


After several other incidents, Kolz informed the supervisory authority for prisoners of war about Sodczyk's behaviour. He was arrested by the Gestapo in February 1945 and taken to the Nordmark labour education camp in Kiel. There, his health deteriorated rapidly. After 6 weeks he was released to Renzel in poor physical condition.


Since his condition did not improve, he was admitted to the Pinneberg district hospital in mid-April 1945, where he died the following day at the age of 20 from "general weakness and deterioration of strength".