Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
Sally, Anna and Ruth Gliksman
Sally Gliksman
Born: 24/02/1896
Died: 03.03.1965
Anna Gliksman, née Freier
Born: 02.09.1909
Died: 15 Jan. 1944
Ruth Gliksman
Born: 20/06/1938
Died: after 15.01.1944
Laying location:
Lange Straße 33, today near Am Rathaus 8Stumbling stone laying on:
14 June 2023
Photos of the laying of the Stumbling Stones
Life path
The tailor Sally (also Szlama) Gliksman lived in Chemnitz from the autumn of 1920. He was born in the town of Czenstochau (then Congress Poland) as the son of the tailor Rubin Gliksman. He initially worked as a tailor at "Modehaus Gebr. Wertheimer". In 1926, he opened a men's clothing shop at Lange Straße 33.
Sally Gliksman became involved in the aims of the KPD at an early stage. After the National Socialists came to power, he supported anti-fascists living in Chemnitz. A former comrade-in-arms had brought the men to his cloakroom shop, where they could dress themselves "at cost price".
On 17 November 1936, Gliksman married Anna Freier, a saleswoman from Leipzig. Their daughter Ruth was also born in the trade fair city.
Gliksman finally took the November pogroms of 1938 as an opportunity to turn his back on the country. In May 1939, he emigrated to Belgium. His wife and daughter followed him there a few weeks later.
Belgium was occupied by Hitler's Wehrmacht in May 1940. The family then went underground. However, the Secret State Police arrested them on the night of 2 December 1943. Two days later, they were transferred to the Mechelen (French: Malines) collection camp near Brussels and deported from there to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 15 January 1944.
Sally Gliksman later recalled: "The SS received and sorted us. Women and children were taken away separately, as were the sick. They didn't get far, because the gas chambers at Birkenau were very close by. - My wife and daughter died in these gas chambers." He survived the hell of Auschwitz and the death march that followed after 17 January 1945.
Gliksman returned to Chemnitz in September 1945. Just two months later, he rejoined the KPD. He was one of the few people who found their way into the newly founded Jewish community in 1948. He subsequently became involved as the 3rd chairman of its board.
Sally Gliksman, who had reopened a tailoring business at the beginning of 1948, only found the strength to have his wife and daughter declared dead by the Chemnitz district court on 31 December 1949 in August 1952. He was thus officially recognised as widowed and was able to enter into a new marriage with the commercial employee Charlotte Eichhorn. In an article in the "Freie Presse" at the time, he commemorated his daughter, who would have turned 16 on 20 June 1954.
A few months later, he began to suffer from nervous disorders as a result of the inhumane prison conditions. Sally Gliksman was repeatedly admitted to the Charité hospital in Berlin for treatment.
After being treated there once again, he died on the return journey on 3 March 1965. The urn burial took place on 28 March 1965 at the Jewish cemetery in the Altendorf district.
Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
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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