In Amsterdam on 21 April 2026 at an Anne Frank House-hosted event, Stolpersteine were laid in memory of the family of Holocaust survivor and classmate of Anne Frank, Nanette Blitz König (aged 97). The stones were installed in front of Van Baerlestraat 58, the last place the family freely lived before they fell victim to Nazi terror. On 29 September 1943, they were arrested by the Nazis and later deported to concentration camps via the transit camp, Westerbork. Nanette was then taken to Bergen-Belsen from where she was liberated by the British Army on 15th April 1945.
Four stones were laid:
- Martijn Willem Blitz (father)
- Helene Victoria Blitz-David (mother)
- Bernard Martijn Blitz (brother)
- Nanette Blitz König
A large crowd had gathered to witness the laying of the stones and to hear speeches from family members who had travelled from across the world to be present. Others attending included: Melissa Müller, biographer of Anne Frank; Holocaust educator and Generation2Generation speaker John Wood whose father Lt-Col Leonard Berney was among those who liberated Nanette from Bergen-Belsen; Ronald Leopold, executive director of Anne Frank House, Amsterdam; representatives of Anne Frank House UK and Anne Frank House Brazil; representatives of the Stolpersteine organisation in Amsterdam; Anne Geerse from the ABN AMRO Art and Heritage Foundation; and Liesbeth Heenk, publisher of Nanette's memoir, 'Holocaust Memoirs of a Bergen-Belsen survivor. Classmate of Anne Frank (2018)' as well as other members of Nanette's family.
The event was also being live broadcast, and watching online were several other members of Nanette's family including Nanette's eldest daughter Elizabeth Helene Kahn who collaborated on a book with Melissa Müller entitled, “Mit dir steht die Welt nicht still' ('With You, the World Keeps Turning - A Story of Love After the Holocaust') that tells her parents' love story from which one learns so much more about the Blitz family. Elizabeth is also the creator of www.foreverafterproject.org, the educational non-profit organization that amplifies voices and stories of survivors and descendants of Holocaust survivors around the world.
Sadly, Nanette who lives in São Paulo, Brazil was not able to attend.
Speakers at the ceremony were Martin Joseph Konig (son) who led the event, Judith Marion Arato (daughter) and Judith's son, Thomas Arato (grandson) who spoke for his aunt, Elizabeth Kahn.
Martin Konig said: “Today, we return my mother and her family to the street where their lives were once lived openly and without fear. These stones ensure that their names are not lost to history, but remain part of the city’s living memory. My mother survived to tell her story; her parents and brother did not. We lay these Stolpersteine not only in remembrance of them, but as a quiet, enduring call to conscience for future generations.”
Attendees then visited the Anne Frank House where Levien Rouw, General Coordinator of International Activities in the Department of Education, delivered a talk about Anne in the garden behind the building, followed by a tour of the museum.
*About Stolpersteine
A Stolperstein (which in English means "stumbling block") is a ten-centimetre (four-inch) concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. The Stolpersteine project, initiated by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, aims to commemorate persons at the last place that they chose freely to reside, work or study before they fell victim to Nazi terror, forced euthanasia, eugenics, deportation to a concentration or extermination camp, or escaped persecution by emigration or suicide. As of June 2023, 100,000 Stolpersteine have been laid, making the Stolpersteine project the world's largest decentralized memorial. The majority of Stolpersteine commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Others have been placed for Sinti and Romani people (then also called "gypsies"), Poles, homosexuals, the physically or mentally disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses, black people, members of the Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the anti-Nazi Resistance, the Christian opposition (both Protestants and Catholics), and Freemasons, Spanish Republicans along with International Brigades soldiers in the Spanish Civil War, military deserters, conscientious objectors, escape helpers, capitulators, "habitual criminals", looters, and others charged with treason, military disobedience, or undermining the Nazi military, as well as Allied soldiers.
For more information, please contact:
John Wood
johnalexwood@gmail.com
+44 7771 52000
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