Artist Lays First Stolpersteine in Voorschoten

Half-sister and half-brother Lewise Judith Polak and Mauritz Heiman van Someren lived in the house at Oranjekade 61. Lewise worked as a nurse, and Mauritz as a butcher. By pretending to be married, they hoped to get through the war years more easily. But they were arrested nonetheless. Via the Westerbork transit camp, they were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. They were murdered there on February 26, 1943. Lewise was 56 years old at the time, and Mauritz was 51.

Tens of thousands of Stolpersteine in Europe

To keep the memory of the victims of National Socialism alive, German artist Gunter Demnig has been creating Stolpersteine since 1992. Each of these sidewalk pavers, featuring 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 residence where the victim lived of their own free will. Tens of thousands of Stolpersteine have already been laid throughout Europe.

Stolpersteine Now Also in Voorschoten

The initiative to install Stolpersteine in Voorschoten as well came from resident René van der Heijden. Together with his grandson and two relatives of Lewise and Mauritz, he attended the brief ceremony, during which artist Gunter Demnig laid the stones and the life stories of the victims were read aloud. A third Stolperstein will soon be laid at another location in Voorschoten. More are expected to follow.

Keep mentioning names

“Our village, too, had Jewish residents who did not survive the horrors of the Holocaust,” says Mayor Nadine Stemerdink. “With these first Stolpersteine, we are creating a monument that keeps their memory alive. According to Jewish tradition, a person lives on as long as their name is mentioned. That is why we must never forget the names of Lewise and Mauritz, and we must continue to talk about them and their fellow victims.”