There will be more Stones of the Disappeared in Prague 2. They will remind of the tragic fate of the local Jews. PRAGUE 2 WITH NEW EYES
20/10/2022
Photo: Nikola Balcarová
Description: At Fügnerova náměstí 1808/3 there is a Stone of the Disappeared for Anna Hekšová, who was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
On November 1, new Stolpersteine, or Stones of the Disappeared, will be laid in Prague 2, commemorating the fates of Jewish individuals and families forcibly taken to concentration camps. Among them was fourteen-year-old Jiřina Žofie Neumannová, who died in Auschwitz a year later. Prague 2 supports the entire project in the form of grants for a long time.
Prague 2 is not only one of the most beautiful places where your feet can take you, but also the place where the largest Jewish community in what was then Czechoslovakia lived before the Second World War. As the press spokesperson of Prague 2, Andrea Zoulová, revealed to us, the entire project of the Disappeared Stones has been supported by Dvojka for a long time. And this both as part of the subsidy program for the support of culture, as well as with a specific financial contribution. “Last year we covered the cost of producing 6 stones, this year it was 3 stones so far,” says Zoulová. Now there will be another 5.
More support
However, supporting the Stolpersteine project is only one part of the comprehensive care for the legacy of the local Jewish community. “Activities commemorating the victims of the Holocaust have always been supported by the entire leadership of the city district, but the then mayor and today’s Ministry of Defense Jana Černochová was an important initiator,” adds Zoulová. In addition to laying the missing stones, Prague 2 therefore also supports other activities. She published the publication Traces of the Jewish Presence in Prague 2 and organized a traveling exhibition of the same name.
So far, the last Stones of the Disappeared in Prague 2 were deposited in June of this year at Jiráskové náměstí 1981/6, photo with the permission of the City Council of Prague 2
The town hall also regularly co-organizes various events commemorating the former synagogue and the personalities who were associated with it. The territory of the second district also hosted, for example, the Mysterious Bond outdoor exhibition about the history of relations between Israel and the Czech Republic. The revitalization of the Masaryk Forest in Israel or the publication Prague’s Stolperstein from the workshop of Trevor Sage, mapping the places in Prague where Jewish fellow citizens lived who were transported to concentration camps during the Second World War and never returned home after the war, also received financial support from the town hall.
Sage has currently launched a crowdfunding campaign on the HitHit portal for a Czech translation of the book. Readers who like the Stolpersteine project can support this campaign on the website of the portal. And it is Trevor Sage, together with the students of Lauder’s school who live in Prague 2, who also supports the cleaning of existing stones.
Who will the new Stones remind of?
Jiřina Žofie Neumannová is a beautiful young girl who was deported to Terezín at the age of 14 and a year later to Auschwitz, where she perished, as well as her mother Bozena Neumannová. At the same time, we only have 5 official documents left from her entire life, which you can view here. The father of the family, Antonín, and her older sister, Eva Marie, were more “lucky” and survived all the horrors in the end.
This picture of a young beautiful girl, Jiřina Žofia Neumannová, is the last before she was taken to Terezín. Fhere with permission holocaust.cz
What the Stones will look like and where to find them
Stones of the Disappeared are cobblestones with a brass finish that contain basic information about the people they commemorate. Newly laid will look like this:
Gorazdova 335/14, Prague 2
She lived here
She lived here
She lived here
He lived here
|
Libušina 49/3, Prague 2
She lived here
|
Who is behind the whole project
The Stolpersteine project in Prague is implemented and organized by the Public Benefit Association for the Support of Persons Affected by the Holocaust. The stones of the disappeared, in the original Stolpersteine, means “stones that need to be look stumble.”
The author of the project is Cologne artist Gunter Demnig. The first stone was laid in front of the town hall in Cologne on December 16, 1992, and soon the project spread all over the world. The idea to launch the project in the Czech Union came from the environment of the Czech Union of Jewish Youth, the first stones were part of the revitalization of the Prague sidewalks in October 2008. In 2018, after two years of inactivity, the project was launched by the chairman of the Jewish community in Prague, František Bányaie, Public benefit association for the support of persons affected by the Holocaust , which assesses the individual requests of the survivors to build and lay new stones.
Installation of the Disappeared Stones, photo stolpersteinecz.cz
“We have many wishes regarding Stolperstein. This year we will lay approx. 100 of them, but the applicants are waiting for the implementation of another approx. 150 stones. Next year we will manage about 100 again. We probably wouldn’t even be able to handle more logistically and communication wise. We are working on the project together with Mrs. Hermína Neuner. Verification of addresses and other data sometimes requires more time (different addresses, different personal names).
In addition, everything was delayed a little because of covid. For example, now in October we are still laying stones that we are putting off from 2020. Otherwise, it is always necessary to obtain the consent of the TSK, the property and monuments department of the Municipality and the transport departments of the Municipal Districts. In the end, we were happy to proceed, because TSK helps us in identifying the construction works of the pavement reconstruction, which reduces the probability of losing stones,” said František Bányai for Krajské listy.cz.
The entire process of submitting an application, submitting documents and hand-making the stone by the sculptor takes over a year after the stone is placed in the pavement. The stones of the disappeared are placed in the pavement in front of the houses of victims of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime, or most often in front of their last residence. They are meant to lead us to pause and reflect.
Anna Hekšová was single, her parents were Arnošt and Hermína. She was originally a saleswoman, but in 1941 she was no longer employed and on May 6, 1941 she was sentenced to a fine of 1,000 protectorate crowns because she was not marked with the letter “J” (Jude, i.e. of Jewish origin) in her ID card. Later, she was fined 2,000 K, because she was detained on the street in the vicinity of Jindřišská věž, thereby committing an offence. On June 1, 1942, due to her lack of property, she was sentenced to 7 days’ imprisonment and was released on June 8. On October 24, 1942, she was taken by transport to Terezín and two days later by transport to Auschwitz, where she perished. The stone of the disappeared with her name was placed in the sidewalk in front of the house on Fügner Square on October 26, 2021. Photo Nikola Balcarová
Revived names
Typical of Demnig’s project is the fact that each victim has his own Stolpersteine. This is because in the extermination camps, the Nazis gave the prisoners their names and replaced them with numbers without their own identity, past and memories. Gunter Demnig thus returns to every learned person his own name and thus his dignity. He was awarded many times for his Stolpersteine project, including the German Cross of Merit in 2005.
You can also design other stones
“Requests for the installation are mostly proposed by relatives, but they are also social organizations and institutions that remembered their former members or participants in the resistance. Today, the residents of the houses where the victims used to live are often interested. It is necessary to remind that the Stolpersteine are not only for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, but for every victim of National Socialism. However, in the case of Jewish victims, it is extremely sad when we lay a stone for children,” he tells KL Bányai.
If you would also like to commemorate certain of the victims, it is necessary to specify their basic data – name (or even maiden name), year of birth, deportation dates, possibly arrests, etc., date of death and place for placing the Stolperstein. The association organizing the Stolpersteine project then applies for the necessary permits for all the stones intended for Prague in a given year together and also organizes and logistically ensures their mass laying.
Stolpersteine prepared for underlayment, photo courtesy of stolpersteinecz.cz
“Each customer pays for the stones themselves. Today it is 32 EUR for one stone and the invoice is sent by Mr. Demnig’s Foundation from Germany directly to the customer of the Stolpersteins. For the actual laying of the stones, we ask the customer for support in the form of a donation. A donation of approx. 1,500 CZK per stone is more than enough for us. Some give more, some less. “Additional donations and support to the Fund for the Victims of the Holocaust and Prague 2 serve partly to secure the organization and partly to pay compensation for the lost stones,” says Bányai.
You can find them all over the Czech Republic
There are currently more than 400 missing Stones in Prague, and hundreds more are scattered throughout the Czech Republic. Look wherever you can find it here. “In addition to Prague 2, there are also a large number of Stolpersteins in Prague 1 and Prague 7. We can state maximum friendliness everywhere. In the last laying of Stolpersteiném year, 5 mayors and other figures of municipal politics. We usually do not try to interfere in the act of piety, because it is a somewhat intimate matter for relatives. Recently, however, we have had several online participations, and then it is very nice when guests come,” adds Bányai.
As early as October 31, Stones of the Disappeared will be added to 13 addresses in Prague 1, 6 and 7. Then on November 1, to another 10 addresses in Prague 1, 5, 6, 8 and 9, including the aforementioned five in Prague 2.
Sources: MČ Prague 2, stolpersteinecz.cz, holocaust.cz, encyklopedie.praha2.cz
Posted by: Andrea Morkusová