Folkingestraat 34

The story behind the first stumbling threshold of the Netherlands that was deposited in Groningen on Friday October 30, 2015 by the German artist Gunter Demnig.
"We will never forget you! See our tears for all Jews. In this place for the Van Gelder families who were persecuted and taken from the Netherlands and murdered during the Second World War (1940-1945) ".
This text is on the first stumbling threshold that was placed in Groningen in front of the building at F populationestraat 34 by the German artist Gunter Demnig. This is a first for Groningen, because never before has a stumbling threshold been placed in the public domain in the Netherlands.
"We first wanted to lay a 10 by 10 cm stumbling block for all Van Gelders who were murdered during the Second World War, because they were Jews. Gunter Demnig's stumbling block turned out not to be suitable for this. It was meant for a person. We then proposed that a trip threshold of almost a meter be laid and he happily agreed to that, "said initiator Johan van Gelder.
However, the realization of the stumbling threshold turned out to be no easy task. Van Gelder wanted to have Hebrew text and images on it and these were wishes that Demnig had never had to deal with before. He asked his colleague Michael Friedlander in Berlin if he had a solution. However, it did not have battle letters to store the Hebrew text. And making would take so long that the threshold could not be placed in Folkestraat in time. That place had to do with Rachel van Gelder who had lived at number 34 before she was taken from Groningen and was murdered in Sobibor on March 20, 1943.
This mother of five children symbolized the approximately one hundred Van Gelders who were murdered in Auschwitz and Sobibor at the time. "There have been many more," said Johan van Gelder, "but at some point you stop counting." In mid-October, Van Gelder could breathe a sigh of relief when he received the redeeming call from Michael Friedlander that he had succeeded to get the threshold ready.
According to Van Gelder, World War II is still gnawing after seventy years. "Politically, there seems to be no lesson to be learned, because wars are still going on and the flow of refugees is the sad result there," he says.
Financial compensation in the form of 'Wiedergutmachung' and restitution of the stolen Jewish assets by the Dutch government, insurers and the banking system should alleviate the suffering for survivors and survivors after the war, but in his opinion this consolation money obviously did not weigh on the loss of the robbed lives of family members, civilians who were in fact neither part nor part of the war, only the misfortune that they were Jews and were considered a danger to the world by H. and his flock, and was based on madness.
"What stories are still surfacing about World War II it will not be able to erase this crime. As survivors and survivors, we can at least - thanks to artist Gunter Demnig - bring the name Van Gelder back into the community.
The criticism from Jewish Germany and the Netherlands that the stumbling stones do not pay homage to the killed Jews and that they are walked on again is, according to him, a blemish that is wrongly placed and is diametrically opposed to the artist's intention that we dwell on this history and bow to read the names of the Holocaust victims.
Van Gelder: "His project is intended to preserve the names of the victims for the future and not to have them erased. We can therefore only ask on behalf of the victims to respect this project. Anyway: We, the Van Gelder family, are making our mark on our history with regard to the Second World War and giving it a place in the world. With the stumbling threshold, we take a moment to reflect on the largest crime committed in Groningen and the Netherlands. Namely the murder of the Jewish Dutch, good citizens, snatched from daily life and robbed of their entire possessions. "
That suffering is visible in a postcard from Leny van Gelder-Leraar, which she put in the letterbox at the Bolwijn family just before she was deported: Dear Lex and Hero, I hereby inform you that we have to leave elsewhere. We are in good spirits. Lots of love Leny van Gelder.
The stamp on the postcard is significant: October 3, 1942. On that day numerous Jewish people from Groningen were collected from the city and province and brought to Camp Westerbork. Her husband Jacob was probably transported from Balderhaar to Westerbork around the same time. The Bolwijn family never saw their neighbors again. Jacob died in Buchenwald on March 11, 1945 and his wife and three children were gassed in Auschwitz on October 6, 1944.

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