Fundraising bid launched for first UK ‘stumbling stone’ for Shoah victim

An online campaign to raise £2,000 for the first Stolperstein ‘stumbling stone’ Holocaust installation in the UK kicked off on Thursday, in a bid to mimic the enigmatic stones dotted all over Europe.

Stolpersteine (‘stumbling stones’) are little brass plaques laid into pavements outside the houses and work places of Jews who were taken to camps and killed during the Second World War. There are around 70,000 in more than 2,000 towns and cities across the continent. Each one commemorates a victim of the Nazis.

Those behind this week’s appeal for Britain’s first Stolperstein want to commemorate the death of a Dutch woman who left London to search for missing relatives, and who was herself later rounded up and killed at Auschwitz in 1943.

TheJustGiving page tells the story of Ada Van Dantzig who was working to restore paintings at the National Gallery in London when war broke out. Against all advice, she went to France, was arrested and transported to Auschwitz where.

On 11 February 1943, she was killed, as were her parents. Her sister had been killed at Auschwitz two weeks earlier and her brother was killed there two months later.

“The funds raised for this memorial will be used to pay Westminster Council who charge over £1,000 for the licence and supervision of the laying of the stone,” said organisers.

“Further funds are required to fund the travel and accommodation expenses of the artist Gunter Demnig who will supply and place the stone for Ada. Further funds are required for a further stone to be used if the original stone is damaged. Any surplus funds will be donated to the Wiener Holocaust Library.”