These stolpersteine (stumbling stones) are located all across Europe and there are now over 100,000 of them, mostly in Germany. They mark the last place that an individual chose to live before they were killed or persecuted by the Nazis. This stone was laid on 21 April 2010 at St. Annen-Straße 20.
Frieda Bär (1891-1943) lived here with her husband Selig Semmy Bär, who was born in the city on 14 January 1891. Frieda, nee Kronenberg, had come from Gierhagen in Westphalia and was born on 24 August 1891. In 1935, they moved into a flat together on the first floor at St. Annen-Straße 20 from their previous residence at Königstraße 45.
The Jewish couple avoided the deportation to Riga in December 1941, although soon after this they were forced out of their flat and had to move into the asylum of the Jewish community at St. Annen-Straße 11. There was space at this location because 90 Jews had been sent to Riga and they were nearly all killed. On 14 April 1942, Semmy died at the age of 57 at the house, with the doctor noting that he had a heart weakness and the cause of death was a stroke.
She lived next to the Jewish synagogue, although this was destroyed internally in 1938 during to Kristallnacht. It’s thought that the building wasn’t demolished by the Germans as it was next to St. Anne’s Museum. The building has since been restored and returned to the Jewish community, remaining as a synagogue.
On 19 July 1942, Frieda was sent to Theresienstadt, leaving Hamburg on the following day. On 29 January 1943, she was sent from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz where she died.
I visited St. Anne’s Museum during my day in Lübeck, the area is now middle-class, clean, refined and peaceful. It is difficult to imagine the synagogue being trashed and residents of the street forced out of their homes, ultimately to be killed at concentration camps.