Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
Dr Margot, Heinrich and Suzanne Carola Hochherr
Dr Margot Hochherr, née Bähr
Born: 23 November 1911
Died: 18 July 1942
Godfather: Dr Christian Flade
Heinrich Hochherr
Born: 03.07.1910
Died: 17/08/1942
Godfather: Dr Christian Flade
Suzanne Carola Hochherr
Born: 01.09.1939
Died: 18.07.1942
Godfather: Dr Christian Flade
Installation location:
Barbarossastrasse 39Stumbling stone laying on:
6 May 2021
Life path
Margot Bähr was born into a Jewish merchant family in Breisach (Baden). Hermann Bähr, her father, was a town councillor in Breisach. Margot attended the secondary school in Breisach until Easter 1926. She then entered the upper secondary school at Rotteck-Oberschule in Freiburg and passed her school-leaving examination there at Easter 1929.
She then began studying dentistry at the University of Heidelberg, where she passed the preliminary dental examination in the summer of 1930. She spent the first two clinical semesters at the University of Munich and the last at the University of Freiburg, where she passed her final dental examination on 25 July 1932. She obtained her licence to practise dentistry on 14 November 1932 in Karlsruhe.
From 1932, Margot Bähr worked as a dental assistant in Dresden. On 29 March 1933, she received her doctorate in dentistry from the Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg.
Dr Margot Bähr moved to Chemnitz at the beginning of 1936. She began working as a dental technician for the Jewish dentist Hans Stein. He offered his "own technical laboratory, oral examinations and counselling". Dr Margot Bähr initially lived as a subtenant at Friedrichstraße 17 before finding a room at Barbarossastraße 39.
On 29 February 1938, she temporarily returned to Breisach. While still in Chemnitz, she had applied to the police headquarters for a passport so that she could emigrate to Holland. In the hope of being able to continue practising her profession in Amsterdam, she had even taken her dentist's chair with her. But her wish did not materialise.
In October 1938, she married Heinrich Hochherr, the son of a tobacco manufacturer from Heidelberg. Their daughter Suzanna Carola was born the following year.
When the Wehrmacht occupied Holland in May 1940, Heinrich Hochherr initially considered going underground with his wife and daughter. However, he rejected the plan for fear that his daughter might give away the hiding place by screaming. Heinrich, Margot and Suzanna Hochherr were arrested shortly afterwards and deported to the Westerbork transit camp. From there, the family was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 15 July 1942 under the command of the "East Prussian Labour Service" and later murdered.
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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