Three Stolpersteine at Narcisstraat 1

Moritz Bottwin was born on January 2, 1874, in Lemberg, Austria—now Lviv, Ukraine. He later became a real estate agent in Bremen. On September 23, 1920, Moritz married Rosalie Platz, who was born on May 14, 1871, in Zons am Rhein. On the night of November 9–10, 1938—Kristallnacht—Moritz was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Immediately after his release, he fled to the Netherlands, together with Rosalie and her sister Henriëtte.

Miss Jenny

Henriëtte, also known as Miss Jenny, was born on November 26, 1869, in Zons am Rhein. At the age of four, she lost her sight due to whooping cough. She learned Braille at the Institute for the Blind in Düren. In addition to her other school subjects, she also learned to sew and play the piano. She used a Hammond typewriter to correspond with sighted people. Jenny was never bored. For example, she wrote poems and fairy tales.

Moritz, Rosalie, and Henriëtte lived at 1 Narcisstraat in Voorschoten until they were arrested. On March 11, 1943, all three were transported to Westerbork and, on March 17, were deported to Sobibor along with 964 others who shared their fate. They were murdered there three days later.

Tens of thousands of Stolpersteine in Europe

To keep alive the memory of the victims of National Socialism, German artist Gunter Demnig has been creating Stolpersteine since 1992. Each of these paving stones, which features a brass plaque measuring 10 by 10 centimeters, bears the name and biographical details of a victim. The stones are laid in the sidewalk in front of the last home where the victim lived voluntarily.

There are already tens of thousands of Stolpersteine throughout Europe. In Voorschoten, there are two stones at Oranjekade 61. They are dedicated to the memory of Lewise Judith Polak and Mauritz Heiman van Someren. At Narcisstraat 1, the working group had previously laid a stone for Mardachia Naymann. There are now a total of four stones there.