The leading Jewish physicist Prof. Leonard Salomon Ornstein (1880-1941). At the start of the Second World War, he was still director of the Physics Laboratory at Utrecht University, where he had previously been rector magnificus. In November 1940, he was dismissed by the German occupiers because he was Jewish. He was no longer allowed to enter the laboratory he had made famous, his “playground of experimental zeal”.
He was unable to cope with this. Six months later, he died of heart problems. The stumbling stone bearing Ornstein's name lies in front of the former laboratory on Bijlhouwerstraat, which now houses the Department of Public Administration and Organisation Science (USBO).
