Honored Achievements: Büttgen Students and Educators Receive Memorial Awards
A Memorial Stone of Remembrance: Kaarst's Tribute to Dr. Winfried Selbiger
In a poignant ceremony on October 20, 2022, Kaarst, Germany, laid the first Stolperstein in its history, honoring the memory of Jewish doctor Dr. Winfried Selbiger. The Stolperstein, a decentralized memorial to victims of the Holocaust, was laid in front of his former residence at the town hall square in Büttgen.
Dr. Winfried Selbiger was a general practitioner in Büttgen who, like many Jewish professionals under the Nazi regime, faced increasing discrimination and escalating danger due to his Jewish heritage. He was eventually taken into protective custody by the National Socialists at the end of October 1933. The exact details of his fate remain unknown, but it is believed that he may have been deported or perished in the Holocaust.
The Stolperstein project was initiated by teacher Nadine Graber and was professionally supported by Kaarst city archivist Sven Woelke, historian Reinhold Mohr, and former mayor Dr. Ulrike Nienhaus. The project course aimed to work through the consequences of anti-Semitism and its impact on Büttgen specifically.
During the ceremony, Carl-Wilhelm Bienefeld, headmaster of the school where the project was carried out, underscored the importance of never forgetting the suffering and persecution caused by anti-Semitism. He expressed his sincere thanks to Reinhold Mohr for his outstanding work on the life of Dr. Winfried Selbiger, which showed that the Nazi's inhumane actions also brought suffering and persecution to Büttgen.
The desire to lay a Stolperstein for Dr. Selbiger on the town hall square arose from the project course, implying a request for forgiveness. Carl-Wilhelm Bienefeld echoed this sentiment: "Never again is today." Reinhold Mohr's research underscored the importance of remembering the consequences of anti-Semitism over centuries.
The city of Kaarst honored the project with a unanimous decision in its meeting on September 14, 2022. Artist Gunter Demnig, with the students, laid the first Stolperstein in Kaarst in memory of Dr. Winfried Selbiger. The Stolperstein serves as a personal and local reminder of the atrocities of the Holocaust and the specific impact on the Kaarst community. It reclaims his memory in the public space, making the remembrance of his life and fate part of everyday urban life.
For the community of Kaarst, laying the Stolperstein is an act of confronting the past, honoring victims, and educating current and future generations about the dangers of hatred and totalitarianism. The Stolperstein for Dr. Winfried Selbiger is both a memorial to a lost individual and a broader symbol against forgetting the Holocaust’s victims, particularly those who lived in and contributed to the Kaarst community before Nazi terror uprooted their lives.
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