Stumbling stones in Chemnitz

Tobias Blaustein

Born: 28 November 1896

Died: 28/02/1993

Godmother: Katrin Zweiniger

The accountant and social democrat Tobias Blaustein was born in the town of Skalat (Austria-Poland). His parents were Benjamin Blaustein and Cipojra Morgenroth. The family had lived in Chemnitz since autumn 1907. His father subsequently established himself in the city as a retailer. The couple initially lived at Färberstraße 6, but the birth of another son made a larger flat necessary. During the First World War, the family found this on the ground floor of the house at Jakobstraße 8, which was owned by the Zweiniger family, who had a popular ballroom in the neighbouring building. A lifelong friendship developed between Tobias Blaustein and Arthur Zweiniger.

In April 1917, Blaustein was mobilised for the Austrian army and did not return from the front until the end of November 1918. After the collapse of the Danube Monarchy, the family lost their Austrian citizenship. Initially, they held Ukrainian citizenship. After the early end of the first Ukrainian nation state, the family became stateless. In the spring of 1926, Tobias Blaustein married Elisabeth Lentzsch, a seamstress from Burgstädt. The couple had three children: Eleonore, Erich and Hanna. The young family initially lived in Zietenstraße before moving to Humboldtstraße. At that time, Blaustein found work as the first bookkeeper at the Leonhard Tietz department store.

The Nazi takeover also had consequences for Tobias Blaustein, although he was categorised as "living in a non-privileged mixed marriage" according to the Nuremberg Race Laws. As he and his family were considered "undesirable" in the house at Humboldtstraße 63, which belonged to Wohnhausbau Chemnitz GmbH, he accepted Zweiniger's offer to move back into the house at Jakobstraße 8. He also became unemployed in those years. From 1937, he worked as an accountant for the Jewish company Steuer & Baumann.

As part of the "Polen-Aktion", Blaustein and his family were also to be arrested on the morning of 28 October 1938. However, Zweiniger was able to warn him as he knew about the action. The arrested men, women and children were to be taken to his "Ballhaus", which was intended as a collection centre. From there, they were deported to Poland on Reichsbahn trains before midnight. Among them were relatives on Blaustein's mother's side. A few days later, during the November pogrom, Tobias Blaustein was taken into "protective custody". This time there was no escape. He was held in Buchenwald concentration camp until February 1939. After the beginning of the Second World War, he was arrested again as a stateless person in December 1939. When Arthur Zweiniger learnt of this, he immediately appealed to the Gestapo for his release. On the condition that Blaustein should leave the city within a week, he was indeed released. Zweiniger then asked the chemical manufacturer Dr Hans Custodis in Bielefeld, a former comrade-in-arms, for help. He turned to the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, which had set up a "retraining camp" in Bielefeld in September 1939. Tobias Blaustein was given a place in the camp at Schlosshofstraße 73a. He then reported to Bielefeld at the turn of 1939/40, where he initially worked as a transport worker in Dr Custodis' company. Despite several requests from Chemnitz to the Gestapo in Bielefeld, he was subsequently granted a permanent residence permit and was able to bring his family to Germany.

From January 1943, the residents of the Schlosshof labour camp were deployed in civil engineering for the company Nebelung & Sohn. At the end of 1944, Tobias Blaustein was transferred to a labour camp run by the TODT organisation in Oberloquitz near Probstzella, where he was forced to work in the slate mines in the area. On 20 February 1945, Tobias Blaustein was deported to Theresienstadt. He survived and lived for a time in Heidenoldendorf near Detmold before moving to Kassel. He died in a Jewish retirement home in Frankfurt (Main).

It is a project against forgetting: stumbling stones have been laid in Chemnitz every year since 2007.

Embedded in the pavement, the memorial stones commemorate the tragic fates of fellow citizens who were persecuted, deported, murdered or driven to their deaths during the National Socialist regime.

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