List of stumbling blocks in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe

Stumbling blocks for the Halter family

The list of stumbling blocks in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe includes those stumbling blocks that were laid by the Cologne artist Gunter Demnig in the Belgian municipality of Berchem-Sainte-Agathe . They remind of the fate of people from this region who were murdered, deported, expelled or driven to suicide by the National Socialists . The stumbling blocks were laid by Gunter Demnig. As a rule, they are moved before the victim's last self-chosen place of residence.

Berchem-Sainte-Agathe

Berchem-Sainte-Agathe ( French ) or Sint-Agatha-Berchem ( Dutch ) is one of the 19 municipalities that make up the Brussels-Capital Region . It is located in the northwest of the region. With 24,830 inhabitants (January 1, 2018) on an area of ​​2.95 square kilometers, it is one of the smaller communities in the region. The Jewish population of Belgium was concentrated in four cities: in Antwerp up to 55,000, in Brussels up to 35,000, in Liège up to 2,000 and in Charleroi 628 people of the Jewish faith. The Germans interned and deported 34,801 Jews. Although many Jewish residents of Belgium were able to flee or successfully hide, 28,902 of them were murdered as part of the Shoah . Most of those who were caught by the German troops were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in cattle wagons .

Laying stumbling blocks

image	translation	address	Life
	HERE LIVED JOSEPH Mordka HOLDER BORN 1890 ARRESTED August 1942 interned in DRANCY deported in 1942 AUSCHWITZ MURDERED	Chaussée de Gand 1116	Joseph Mordka Halter was born in Warsaw on February 13 or 19, 1890 . His parents were Avraham Yitzkhak Halter and Chana, née Pasirshtein. He had five siblings: Salomon, Lea, Regine, Rivka and Tauba. His father and brother were typesetters and printers. He became a watchmaker and was married to Ryfka Horowitz . The couple had three children: Marie, she died six years at a pneumonia , Samuel (born in 1916) and Paul (born 1920). After the German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg in May 1940, the whole family fled to Vichy . After a few weeks they returned to Brussels, where the older son completed his medical degree and both sons joined the Resistance . According to the labor deployment order of 4 August 1942, Joseph holders on August 3, 1942 should be at 10 am at SS assembly camp Mechelen arrive. He ignored the order. He wanted to flee to Switzerland with his wife. His son Paul provided him with documents for this purpose, but the author of the papers, an official from Ixelles, had made a list of all the documents. The list was sent to all checkpoints and not far from the border, in Pontarlier , Joseph Halter and his wife were arrested in August 1942 and then interned in the Drancy assembly camp , twenty kilometers northeast of Paris. Both were deported on August 21, 1942 with Transport 22 from Drancy to Auschwitz. Joseph Mordka Halter was murdered in Auschwitz. His wife was also murdered in Auschwitz, and his parents did not survive the Shoah either. His sisters Tauba and Lea and their husbands as well as his sister Rivka were also victims of the Shoah. Joseph Mordka's son Paul was also deported to Auschwitz, but was able to survive. Sam Halter fled to England in good time. Sister Regine and Brother Salomon and his family were also able to survive the Nazi regime. His nephew Marek Halter , born in 1936, later became a well-known writer.
	HERE LIVED PAUL HOLDER BORN 1920 ARRESTED 06/16/1943 ARMED RESISTANCE PRISON SAINT-GILLES interned in MECHELEN deported in 1943 AUSCHWITZ SURVIVE	Chaussée de Gand 1116	Paul Baron Halter was born in Geneva on October 10, 1920 . His parents were Joseph Mordka Halter and Ryfka , née Horowitz. He had a sister, Marie, who died of pneumonia at the age of six, and a brother Samuel (born 1916) who later became a doctor. Paul Halter became a Belgian citizen after the family moved to Brussels in 1921. Halter studied philosophy and art at the Université libre de Bruxelles . Immediately after the German occupation of Belgium, the family fled to Vichy. On the advice of Paul-Henri Spaak , a socialist politician from Belgium who was then in Vichy, the family returned to Brussels, where the brothers joined the Resistance in 1941. Paul Halter was involved in several attacks, his code name was Stephane . Among other things, he was involved in the attack on convoy XX, which enabled over 100 deportees to escape to freedom. His parents were arrested near the Swiss border in August 1942, first deported to Drancy, then to Auschwitz and murdered as part of the Shoah. His brother was able to flee to London via Spain and Portugal; he later took over the organization of the hospitals of the Belgian Navy. On June 16, 1943, Paul Halter was arrested in a tram in Schaerbeek , one of the 19 parishes in Brussels. He was interrogated several times by the Secret Field Police . Paul Halter had papers issued for Jews through an official, including for his parents. He was imprisoned in Saint-Gilles prison, transferred to the SS assembly camp in Mechelen and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on September 20, 1943 in convoy XXIIA. There were 640 people in the transport, only 32 of them survived. Paul Halter got the prisoner number 151.610 tattooed. He had to do forced labor in the Fürstengrube subcamp. He survived torture, hunger and disease and was able to survive the concentration camp - thanks in part to his skills as a watchmaker. Paul Halter has received numerous awards, including the Auschwitz Cross of the Republic of Poland and the Federal Cross of Merit . He was raised to the nobility by the Belgian king in 1966. In 1980 he founded the Auschwitz Foundation , of which he was president to the end. He died on March 30, 2013 at the age of 92.
	RYFKA HOROWITZ LIVED HERE BORN IN 1892 ARRESTED AUGUST 1942 INTERNED IN DRANCY DEPORTED IN 1942 AUSCHWITZ MURDERED	Chaussée de Gand 1116	Ryfka Halter , née Horowitz, was born in Poland on February 20, 1892. She was married to the watchmaker Joseph Mordka Halter . The couple had three children: Marie, who died of pneumonia at the age of six, Samuel (born 1916) and Paul (born 1920). Ryfka Halter and her husband were arrested in August 1942 and interned in the Drancy assembly camp, twenty kilometers northeast of Paris. She and her husband were deported from Drancy to Auschwitz on Transport 22 on August 21, 1942. Ryfka Halter did not survive the Shoah. Her husband did not survive the Shoah either, both sons were in the resistance and survived.

Laying data

The Stolpersteine ​​of Berchem-Sainte-Agathe were laid on October 30, 2014 by Gunter Demnig.

See also

• List of places with stumbling blocks

Web links

Commons : stumbling blocks in Brussels  - collection of images

• Stolpersteine.eu , Demnig's website
• Pavés de Mémoire posés par l'AMS . Website of the Association pour la Mémoire de la Shoah

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Israel Gutmann (editor-in-chief): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust , Munich, Zurich 1995, Volume I, pp. 168f
2. ↑ The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names: Lea Mendelsberg , accessed December 14, 2019
3. ↑ The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names: Rivka Halter , accessed December 14, 2019
4. ↑ The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names : Tauba Blumenfrukht , accessed December 14, 2019
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Paul Halter, Numéro 151.610 , accessed on December 14, 2019
6. ^ Sorrel Kerbel (ed.): The Routledge Encyclopedia of Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century , Routledge 2004, 411 - 413
7. ↑ Marolles - Jewish Memories: Association des Juifs en Belgique , with work assignment orders for Joseph and Paul Halter and the AJB membership card from Joseph Halter, each in facsimile, accessed on December 14, 2019
8. ↑ The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names has three entries about him, accessed on December 14, 2019:
   * JOSEPH HALTER , based on an entry in Le Mémorial de la déportation des juifs de France , Béate and Serge Klarsfeld, Paris 1978,
   * YOSEF HALTER , based on information from his sister Regine Kumetz Halter, published in List of murdered Jews from Yizkor , Pinkes Varshe; Buenos Aires 1955,
   * JOSEF HALTER , based on a death report from his niece Khans Khefetz, but with the wrong year of birth 1897.
9. ↑ The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names: Avraham Yitzkhak Halter , accessed December 14, 2019
10. ↑ The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names: Chana Halter , accessed December 14, 2019
11. ↑ The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names: Ovadia Blumenfrukht , accessed December 14, 2019
12. ↑ The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names: Akiva Mendelsberg , accessed December 14, 2019
13. ↑ bruzz.be: Verzetsheld Paul Halter overleden , accessed on December 14, 2019
14. ↑ Judaica: Passeurs de memoire Paul Holder , accessed on 14 December 2019
15. ↑ Kazerne Dossin: Transport XXIIA , accessed December 15, 2019
16. ↑ auschwitz.be: Ceremonie ter ere van Paul Baron HALTER en uitvaart , accessed on December 14, 2019
17. ↑ De laatste getuigen uit concentratie- en vernietigingskampen, ASP - Academic and Scientific, 2010, ISBN 978-9054877370 , pp. 480-485
18. ↑ [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]: Studio portrait of a prewar Belgian-Jewish family , photo of the Halter family, accessed on December 14, 2019
19. ↑ The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names has two entries, both accessed on November 14, 2019:
    * RIVKA HALTER , based on an entry in Le Mémorial de la déportation des juifs de France , Béate and Serge Klarsfeld, Paris 1978,
    * RIVKA HALTER , based on a testimony from her sister-in-law.

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