In July last year, I stood outside my grandfather’s old home and watched an artist make him part of one of the world’s largest memorials.
I’m about the same age Erwin Meyer was when he walked out of that door for the last time having been robbed of everything he owned and forced into exile. In 1935, my grandfather was forced to leave Germany as the Nazi government began to pass increasingly restrictive laws against Jewish people, ultimately leaving the 26-year-old and his family to forfeit their stake in the successful Thalheimer timber business for a pittance of its real value in exchange for an exit visa that would see him board a ship from Southampton to Cape Town.
In his book, Legalisiertes Undrecht, Cristoph Franke writes of the “legalised theft” of the Thalheimer timber business that my great grandfather started. “An economic adviser to the German administration bought the Thalheimer company at a price of 1.6 Million Reichsmark. The estimated value of the company was four Million Reichsmark.” He explains that the reduced figure paid for the company was seized at a customs branch in Hanover a year after my grandfather left Germany, and all the Jewish representatives were arrested.
Eighty-four years later I find myself standing on a grey street in the suburbs of the industrial city of Hanover, outside a block of flats that stands out from the rest because it doesn’t share their characteristic facade of post-war architecture. Erwin Meyer lived here with his mother, father, and sister, and it was his last German address before he was effectively exiled.
German artist Gunter Demnig realised the poignance of sites like this in the 90s, and began placing Stolperstein, or ‘stumbling stones’ outside the former homes of Jewish people who were forced to escape the persecution of the Third Reich. The stones have been laid in collaboration with the German Department of Culture, who see the initiative as a means towards reconciliation. There are over 70 000 gold Stolperstein plates across the streets of Europe, making Demnig’s tribute the world’s largest de-centralised monument in the world.
“The stones should also serve the purpose of remembering your family. It works best with young people. They can picture a real family union, in a city, right on this spot or maybe around the corner. All those people went to school, maybe even the school I went to. They can think to themselves, ‘maybe this person was my age when they were murdered’.” said Demnig.
I joined my uncle, Michael Meyer and my cousin David for a ceremony outside the house, attended by the District Mayor of Hanover and members of the press and community. Within minutes, Demnig had cut a slice of pavement away and forever immortalised the home in history with the words “Erwin Meyer lived here”.
By Dan Meyer
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