Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
Kalman, Chane and Margot Kugelmas
Kalman Kugelmas
Born: 18 October 1902
Died: after 28.10.1938
Chane Kugelmas, née Bloner
Born: 29.01.1902
Died: after 28.10.1938
Margot Kugelmas
Born: 30.09.1933
Died: after 28.10.1938
Installation location:
Augustusburger Straße 44
Stumbling stone laying on:
20 September 2025
Life path
The Kugelmas couple and their daughter Margot were among the 335 Jews with Polish citizenship from Chemnitz who were deported to the Polish border on 28 October 1938.
The merchant Kalman Kugelmas had lived in the German Reich since 1909. He came from the settlement of Jablonow, his wife Chane Bloner from the town of Sędziszów. Both towns were part of the Austrian crown land of Galicia until 1918. Following the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the families became Polish citizens.
There is little reliable information about the Kugelmas family. The couple presumably lived in Chemnitz from the end of the 1920s. They had built up a business dealing in men's clothing. They lived at Augustusburger Straße 44 and the shop was initially located at Rochlitzer Straße 1a before being moved to Oststraße 12.
Kurt Kugelmas, as he was known in the business world, was a passionate chess player. He belonged to the Jewish Chess Club in Chemnitz, which was founded in 1927.
The couple had a daughter. Margot was born in the State Women's Clinic in Chemnitz. The family last lived in the house at Apollostraße 18, which later became one of the largest "Jewish houses" in the city. Whether Margot, like her cousins Edith and Ruth Friesel of the same age, was also intended for enrolment in the special Jewish classes at the Chemnitz primary school at Mühlenstraße 34 can only be surmised.
On 28 October 1938, the Kugelmas couple and their five-year-old daughter were arrested as part of the "Poland Action" and taken by the Reichsbahn to their supposed homeland, where they initially stayed in Bentschen (Zbaszyn). Their fate is unknown. The textile business was subsequently liquidated.
Author: Dr Jürgen Nitsche
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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