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The Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) at Bremerstrasse 1 in Delmenhorst commemorate the Samuels family, who owned a jewelry store here. Their life story reflects the fate of the Jewish community in the city, which, from 1933 onward, was increasingly excluded, persecuted, and ultimately destroyed. By 1940, not a single Jewish resident remained in Delmenhorst.
The Jewish community of Delmenhorst had been steadily growing since 1875 and numbered around 165 people in 1933. One of the families that settled here was the Samuels family. Julius and Gertrude Samuels originally came from Argenau, a town that became part of Poland after World War I. They moved to Delmenhorst, where they took over a jewelry store at Bremerstrasse 1 and began a new life with their three children.
Their eldest son, Heinz, earned his doctorate in law from the University of Rostock in 1932, but practicing law became impossible for him there. He fled to Bromley, England, where he was interned at the start of the war. After his release, he married and remained in England. Their daughter, Ruth, moved to South America and, like Heinz, survived the war. Julius and Gertrude and their youngest son, Kurt, fled to the Netherlands in 1935, where they lived and worked as watchmakers on Geulstraat in Amsterdam.
The rise of National Socialism in 1933 brought a wave of antisemitism. In Delmenhorst, Jewish shops were boycotted, Jews were excluded from public life, and Jewish property was confiscated. Antisemitism reached a new peak during the Kristallnacht of November 9–10, 1938. During a speech on Burg-Insel, calls were made to set fire to the synagogue and destroy Jewish property. That same night, the closure of the Samuels family business, Helvetia Uhren, was announced.
In the Netherlands, the Samuels family initially seemed safe. In June 1942, Gertrude even placed an advertisement in the Joods Weekblad (Jewish Weekly) to celebrate her husband's 50th anniversary as a watchmaker. But ultimately, they were persecuted there as well. Their son Kurt died on September 30, 1942, in Auschwitz. Julius and Gertrude were deported from Westerbork to Sobibor on June 29, 1943, where they were murdered on July 2, 1943.
The Samuels family is one of many examples of the fate of Delmenhorst's Jewish residents. In 1938, the community still numbered about 60 Jewish people. By the end of 1939, almost all of them had been forced to leave or were deported. The Stolpersteine in Delmenhorst now serve as a reminder of this history and the people who once lived and worked there.