This Reading Room exhibition dives into our unique family papers collections and explores the personal stories of Inge Buchdahl and Alfred Katz behind the Stolpersteine (‘stumbling stones’) memorials to their lives.
When documenting the Holocaust, victims are often concentrated into figures and statistics, often making people forget that they were human beings with names and memories. In the Talmud it says “A person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten”, however, with the Stolpersteine, people’s names are recorded and remembered. By telling Inge and Alfred’s stories, their names and pasts will be remembered by those who ‘stumble upon’ their memorials, ensuring they will not be forgotten.
As a decentralised memorialisation, every victim is commemorated individually. It not only shows the intimacy of personal memory, but also provides evidence of history. The locations of each Stolpersteine are usually the victim’s last freely decided address, providing a tangible link between past events and present reality, as well as the link between the individuals and their community.
Retrieved from our archive, the family papers were donated by the descendants of Paul Plaut and Hanna and Peter Singer. Items on display include: pictures of the Stolpersteine, Inge’s letters sent to a close childhood friend, Alfred’s photos with his family before the War, and a telegram between Alfred and his family via the Red Cross.
