Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
Oscar Lichtenstein
Oscar Lichtenstein
Born: 10.03.1865
Died: 02.10.1942
Sponsor: Friends of the Jewish Community of Chemnitz
Installation location:
Rudolf-Breitscheid-Straße 5Stumbling stone laying on:
5 October 2020
Life path
The merchant Oscar Lichtenstein was born in the town of Preußisch Eylau (East Prussia). Before moving to Chemnitz in June 1892, he lived in Breslau. In spring 1895, together with Hans Friedländer, he founded a fabric glove wholesaler under the name Lichtenstein & Co. It was based in a side building of the house at Wiesenstraße 56 and had a production site in Weißbach near Zschopau.
In August 1897, Oscar Lichtenstein married Clara Elise Wollenberg in Posen. Their four children were born between 1900 and 1908: Agnes, Fritz, Hans and Käte. The family moved several times before finally finding a flat suitable for their status on the ground floor of the house at Germaniastrasse 5 around 1910. On 30 April 1936, Clara Lichtenstein died at the age of 63 in the hospital in Küchwald and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Altendorf. Subsequently, Oscar Lichtenstein was forced to give up both the trading company and the flat due to the endless boycott measures of the Nazi rulers.
He moved several times before being forced by the Nazi authorities to move into the "Jews' house" at Apollostrasse 18. From there, Oscar Lichtenstein was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto together with a large number of Chemnitz Jews (including the Sonder couple) on 7/8 September 1942. Given his advanced age of 77, the former businessman was unable to acclimatise to the catastrophic living conditions there. According to survivors, Oscar Lichtenstein died of starvation on 2 October 1942. The doctor treating him had given "intestinal catarrh" as the cause of death.
In 1984, a memorial inscription was placed on his wife's gravestone in memory of Oscar Lichtenstein. The grandchildren living in the Netherlands, Great Britain and Israel welcome the laying of a Stolperstein for their grandfather.
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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