Following an invitation from the Democracy Laden in Kahla, our association commemorated the Stolperstein – stumbling stones in Kahla with a laying of flowers.
These stones, in the Ross and Rudolf-Breitscheidstrasse, recall the fate of the Jewish inhabitants of the town, who were deported after the pogrom night of November 9, 1938.
From the Demokratie Laden we also got the request to contribute something creative to the design to be shown at the their window. A large poster, designed and hand-drawn by us, now remembers the memory in Kahla.
On the occasion of this day we also published a message:
“1945 – 2020, 75 years of remembrance
Today on November 9, 2020, we commemorate the Jewish inhabitants of Kahla. Deported from their daily life in our city in the 1940s by the National Socialists, they were sent to a concentration camp. Some of them survived, others were murdered.
Kahla also has a different, equally memorable human history, associated with arms production and forced labor. As early as 1940, forced laborers and prisoners of war were employed in the porcelain factory.
In addition, from April 1944, more than 12,000 forced laborers were employed to build the underground aircraft plant “REIMAHG”.
Our association “Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Walpersberg” e.V., based in Kahla, works, researches, preserves and documents the history and fates of these forced laborers, so that their history is not forgotten.
Only those who learn from history will not make the same mistake. Especially in today’s society, this message should guide us, so that we never have to put new stumbling stones in the streets of Kahla again.“
