Jacob Herz and Bertha Herz's Stolpersteine

Bertha Herz and Jacob Herz lived in Essen-Werden before Jacob was deported. They too led a life that was severely affected by the increasing discrimination and persecution of the Jewish population in Germany. Two Stolpersteine at Bungertstraße 22 in 45239 Essen-Werden by the Baldeneysee commemorate their fate.

Jacob Herz was a Werdener through and through. He was born on November 20, 1893 in the abbey town of Werden and was one of the Jewish citizens who suffered under the increasing repression of the National Socialist regime. He was also arrested during the November pogroms of 1938 and taken into so-called "protective custody". "Protective custody" meant nothing other than that people were imprisoned without any legal basis. Jacob Herz was taken to the Dachau concentration camp, one of the first and most notorious camps under National Socialism. There he was subjected to the most severe conditions before he was finally released.

But his persecution did not end with his release. On April 22, 1942, Jacob Herz was deported again - this time, like Sophie and Ruth Baum, to the Izbica transit ghetto. This ghetto in Poland served as a transit camp for Jewish deportees who were later transported on to extermination camps such as Sobibor or Belzec. There are no precise records of his fate, but it is likely that he died in one of the extermination camps.

His wife, Bertha Herz, who was three years younger, was also deported to Izbica in 1942. Unfortunately, there is less documented information about her. She was therefore also a victim of Nazi persecution, but there is no specific information about her deportation, her subsequent fate and her death.

The Stolpersteine for Jacob Herz were originally laid on July 7, 2006 and later replaced on September 20, 2024. These memorial stones commemorate the lives and tragic end of Jewish citizens and are part of the efforts to keep the memory of the victims of the Holocaust alive as a memorial.