STOLPERSTEINE GELSENKIRCHEN

Ausgrenzung erinnern

	HERE LIVED Sally B. Haase BORN 1891 ARRESTED 1938 SACHSENHAUSEN ESCAPED 1939 BELGIUM DEPORTED 1942 FROM DRANCY MURDERED 1944 IN AUSCHWITZ
	HERE LIVED CAROLA HAASE NEE. COSSMANN BORN 1898 DEPORTED 1942 RIGA MURDERED 1945 IN STUTTHOF
	HERE LIVED INGRID HAASE BORN 1928 DEPORTED 1942 RIGA MURDERED 1945 IN STUTTHOF

Stumbling Stones (stones of remembrance) installed at: Kurt-Schumacherstrasse 10, Gelsenkirchen

„Now the story of my family has finally come full circle“ said Bernd Haase, who was born in Gelsenkirchen on 9th March, 1926, on the occasion of the installation of the Stolpersteine in June 2010. His parents were Sally Haase, a jewish businessman born in Gelsenkirchen on 22nd January, 1891 and Carola Haase, née Cossmann, who was born and brought up in Bonn. Carola Cossmann had become a widow at very young age; when marrying Sally Haase , she was mother of a girl: Margot, born 14th October, 1921. The family grew, and on 9th November, 1928 Ingrid, Bernd´s sister was born , like him, in Gelsenkirchen.

The mercantile family Haase lived in Kaiserstrasse 10, today called Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse. Before „Reichskristallnacht“ the father was arrested and was imprisoned in a concentration camp for several months. The Nazis forced Sally Haase to „sell“ their house in Kaiserstrasse as well as a second house in Bahnhofstrasse within the framework of the so-called „Aryanisation“.

After his disimprisonment from the concentration camp Sally Haase initially escaped to Belgium. With the help of relatives daughter Margot could escape to the United States. Carola Haase and her both children Bernd and Ingrid had to stay in Gelsenkirchen, as the war had begun. The family had tried to get an entry visa, but their names were too far down on the wait list. With her two kids, Mother Carola had to move to a so-called „Judenhaus“in Karl-Laforce-Strasse 15(as it was called at that time). Today the street is called Arminstrasse. Thus they experienced the increasing discrimination in their daily life in Nazi Germany with all its inhuman harshness and cruel treatment. On 27th January, 1942 the mother was finally deported to Riga, together with her two children.

When the Red Army moved forward and came closer, Carola Haase and her children Bernd and Ingrid were hauled off to the concentration camp Stutthof near Danzig. It was there that mother Carola and sister Ingrid were murdered by the Nazis. Father Sally, who had fled to France when the troops of Nazi Germany had invaded Belgium and the Netherlands, fell into the hands of henchmen of the Naziregime and was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1944. Bernd Haase was freed in March 1945 and returned to his home town Gelsenkirchen. With the help of his sister Margot he could emigrate to the USA where he still lives today. Bernd Haase has taken the sponsorship for the three Stolpersteine in reminiscence of his family.

Read more about Bernd Haase: → Memories of life paths and ordeal

→ Photo gallery: Setting of the Stolpersteine for the Haase family