Memory on Wednesday: Stumbling blocks for the Ehlen couple in Neukölln
Memory on Wednesday: Stumbling blocks for the Ehlen couple in Neukölln
On Wednesday, April 10, 2024, two stumbling blocks are laid in Oderstrasse 52 in Neukölln in order to commemorate the fate of the married couple. The stumbling blocks are a project that commemorates people during the National Socialism period that have been persecuted and murdered. Walter and Hilde Ehlen who lived in this house is thought of here.
Walter Ehlen was born in Berlin-Neukölln in 1906 and was politically active in communist circles. After his arrest, he was sentenced to 15 years of prison and brought to the Gusen concentration camp, where he was finally murdered in May 1945. His wife Hilde Ehlen, born in Berlin-Schöneberg in 1910, had to flee to England with her son after her husband was arrested, where she lived until her death in 1993.
stumbling blocks are widespread throughout Germany and offer an opportunity to individually remember victims of National Socialism. Everyone can donate a stumbling block to remember a specific person or family. In Neukölln, the laying of stumbling blocks from the Museum Neukölln is coordinated. Interested parties can contact more information at stummy@museum-neukoelln.de or on Tel. 627 277 -721/-722. Further information is also available on the website www.stolpersteine-berlin.de.
The laying of the stumbling blocks in Neukölln is accompanied by a small commemoration, in which the godmother, together with the 10th grade of the Evangelical School Neukölln, is reminiscent of the fate of the Ehlen couple. The involvement of schools and local communities into such commemorative events helps to maintain the memory of the victims of National Socialism and to fight against forgetting.
It is important to support such memorial events and projects in order to keep the historical memory in society alive and to take responsibility for the past. The laying of stumbling blocks is a moving way to commemorate individual fates during National Socialism and to involve the perspective of individuals into the collective memory.
table with information about the married couple:
| Name | Date of birth | Place of birth | Whereabouts |
| —————— | ————— | –———————- |
| Walter Ehlen | 1906 | Berlin | Mauthausen KZ |
| Hilde Ehlen | 1910 | Berlin | England, died in 1993 |
The laying of the stumbling blocks for Walter and Hilde Ehlen in Neukölln is an important form of commemoration to the victims of National Socialism and helps to keep the memory of individual fates alive. It is of great importance to support such initiatives and actively deal with history in order to draw the teachings from the past and to fight against forgetting.
Source: www.berlin.de