STOLPERSTEINE GELSENKIRCHEN

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Stolpersteine Gelsenkirchen

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Verlegeort CARL POSNER

BORN 1890
FORCIBLY DISPLACED 1942
RIGA
MURDERED 1942



Verlegeort ELLA POSNER

NEE STESSMANN
BORN 1901
FORCIBLY DISPLACED 1942
RIGA
MURDERED 1944
STUTTHOF


Verlegeort LOTTE POSNER

BORN 1930
FORCIBLY DISPLACED 1942
RIGA
MURDERED 1944
STUTTHOF

Place of installation: Arminstraße 1 (on the basis of the old town map plan around Kurt-Neuwald-Platz), Gelsenkirchen

Cattle dealer Carl Posner was born in Gelsenkirchen on 27th June, 1890. His wife Ella, née Stessmann, came from Medebach, where she was born on 8th September, 1901. Their daughter Lotte was born in Gelsenkirchen on 26th February, 1930.

Grabstein auf dem jüdischen Friedhof in Gelsenkirchen-Ückendorf

Fig.1: Tombstone of Carl Posner's parents at the Jewish cemetery in Gelsenkirchen-Ueckendorf

Carl was one of the sons of Benjamin Posner who hailed from Norden, a town in Northern Germany, where he was born on 1st September, 1864. Benjamin Posner also worked as a cattle dealer and evidently he and his family moved to Gelsenkirchen in 1916. He died in Gelsenkirchen on 2nd March, 1940 and was burried at the Jewish graveyard in Gelsenkirchen-Ueckendorf. Benjamin's wife was a née Mendel hailing from Linnich (district Jülich) where she was born on 1st June, 1860. She died before her husband on 12th September, 1933 and her funeral also took place at the Jewish cemetery in Gelsenkirchen-Ueckendorf.



Grabstein auf dem jüdischen Friedhof in Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke

Fig.2: tombstone of Curt Posner at the Jewish graveyard in Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke, Wanner Straße

Besides Carl and a child that had died early Benjamin and Sophie Posner had another son called Curt who was born on 16th March, 1894. Curt died on 5th December, 1917. The tomb inscription says : „died of the aftermaths of injuries sustained in the war“. Moreover, the couple had a daughter named Carola, her path of life and/or ordeal is presently unknown.

The Posner family lived in a flat in Arminstraße 1 until end of September 1939 when persecution authorities forced them to move into one of the so-called „Judenhäuser“ in Ringstraße 54. People were forcibly accommodated there and had to stay there under degrading living conditions in extremely confined quarters until their displacement.

Grabstein auf dem jüdischen Friedhof in Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke

Fig.3: marginal notes of the registration office Gelsenkirchen on the birth certificate of Carl Posner: the NS state-mandated forename „Israel“is hereby cancelled.Zum Vergrößern anklicken

Carl Posner and his family was displaced from Gelsenkirchen to the ghetto of Riga on 27th January, 1942. According to reports given by survivors Carl Posner was presumably murdered in February/March 1942 during one of the „Aktionen“ (purging selections).During these selections in only these two month nearly 3,000 prisoners, predominantly children under 14 years of age together with their mothers and prisoners over 45 years were declared as „unfit for work“ (which was the ultimate death sentence) in the cc Jungfernhof as well as in the ghetto of Riga.

Under the pretense of taking these people to Dünamünde to a fish factory where working conditions would be easier for them, these poor souls selected by SS for execution were transported to the already excavated mass graves in the forest of Bikernieki (Riga high forest)in order to shoot them there. Ella and Lotte Posner were transported from Riga to the concentration camp Stutthof and were murdered there in December 1944. As per decree of the district court of Gelsenkirchen (Amtsgericht) family Posner was pronounced death on 17th January, 1953, official determination date of death: 31st December, 1945.

PICTURES AS THE ONLY PAPER TRAIL

Helene Jaschinski, grandmother of Sabine Donat, was a friend of the Posner family. She used to support the family in the „Judenhaus“ in Ringstraße 54 with food on a frequent basis. Sabine Donat reports:“ My grandmother would go through a taylor's workshop on the ground floor of the adjacent house. The owner of the workshop was remunerated with food so she kept still. On the attic of that house some bricks in the gable wall separating the two houses were loose. By removing them, one could climb into the „Judenhaus“ and could hand over the food. Had they caught Granny, she would have ended in a concentration camp.“

There are two pictures that Helene Jaschinski could save shortly after the deportation of the Posner family from their flat. A wedding picture of Carl and Ella Posner and one showing Lotte Posner with two other children. „ Shortly after the war a young man came to my grandmother and told her that all members of the Posner family had been murdered by the Nazis. My grandmother was too upset to ask for his name“ Sabine Donat reflects. „ my grandmother kept the pictures of the Posner family over all these years. After her death, they got into my possession. It has been many years now that I have been trying to trace relatives of the Posners, as I want to hand the photos to them – so far my researches have been in vain. These memorabilia should be kept and honoured within the family, I think.“

Hochzeitsfoto von Carl und Ella Posner

Fig. 4: Wedding photo of Carl and Ella Posner

Lotte Posner, links

Fig. 5: Lotte Posner on the left

The couple Alfons and Sabine Donat are the donators for the „Stolpersteine“ dedicated to the Posner family, installed on 8th October, 2012.

Sources:
Einwohnermeldekartei, Stadtarchiv Gelsenkirchen - Institut für Stadtgeschichte (ISG)
Gedenkbuch BA: Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945
Abb. 1 u.2: Gelsenzentrum e.V.
Abb. 3: Stadtarchiv Gelsenkirchen
Abb. 4 u.5: Familie Donat

Projektgruppe STOLPERSTEINE Gelsenkirchen. Februar 2012

Stolpersteine für Familie Posner, verlegt am 8. Oktober 2012

Stolpersteine Gelsenkirchen - Familie Posner

Stolpersteine Gelsenkirchen - Familie Posner


Translation Claudia Thul, Projektgruppe STOLPERSTEINE Gelsenkirchen. February 2019


Projektgruppe STOLPERSTEINE Gelsenkirchen. Oktober 2012

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