Leaflets were distributed in a Berlin neighborhood in early September, inviting residents to a special ceremony.
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The city, beloved by Max Heppner’s ancestors but their betrayer during World War II, was honoring his family with engraved sidewalk plaques, to be installed in their former neighborhoods.
“We would be delighted if you could join us,” the invitation said.
About 20 showed up on Sept. 6 to commemorate the family of Heppner, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Hillsboro Beach, as part of the massive “Stolpersteine,” or “Stumbling Stones” project, which began in Germany in the 1990s and has spread across Europe.
There are now more than 100,000 brass plaques, in countries such as Austria, France and the Netherlands, that commemorate victims of the Holocaust outside their last residence or in the immediate neighborhood.
Heppner, 92, had reached out to project organizers in February to see whether his family qualified. He was thrilled to learn they did.
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The stones honor Heppner, his father, Albert; his mother, Irene; and his grandmother, Dina. Each inscription reads “Here lived,” followed by the victim’s name, date of birth and what became of them during World War II; all fled their cherished homes.
Heppner’s mother was pregnant with him when his parents departed from Berlin to Amsterdam in 1933 to get away from the Nazis. He has spent much of his life trying to reconcile his family’s love of German language and culture with the Nazis’ harassment, the theft of his family’s art work by Dutch police, and the lack of empathy of many Europeans.
Heppner was accompanied to the ceremony by his daughter and grandchildren. He wasn’t sure if he would get his own stone, as he was conceived in Berlin but born in Amsterdam. He said he was glad he was given one and left the ceremony with feelings of both bitterness toward the Nazis and affection for the Berlin of his family’s memories.
“I feel satisfied,” Heppner said. “The Nazis’ plan was to wipe out all evidence of my existence. So to have my name back, where it should have stayed, is a feeling of completion.”
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