Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Laura-Elisa Appelhagen from the ZeitZentrum Zivilcourage in Hannover presented the Stolpersteine for our great-granduncle Julius Blumenfeld and his wife Dina, née Heiser, in front of the building at Goethe-Strasse 19 where they had lived and had their butcher shop. She placed them carefully into my hands, and tears came to my eyes. I thought: “Julius and Dina, murdered in the Shoah and buried who knows where, have come home. In a few minutes they will have a grave-like memorial. They won’t be forgotten.”

I placed them in the hands of my cousins Steven and Jim Bloomfield. It was evident that they, too, were moved. They stood silently, reverently, meditatively. To me, it felt as though we were holding urns with the ashes of our murdered ancestors. The hole in the pavement appeared to me to be a grave, and I felt as though I were standing beside that grave, about to conduct an urn burial.

It was then time for the ceremony to begin. Jens Binner, director of the ZeitZentrum Zi-vilcourage, was going to say a few words. Edel Sheridan-Qunatz, who had organized Julius’ and Dina’s Stolpersteine and written their biographies, asked me if the stones weren’t too heavy. She would hold them for me. However, for me they belonged in the hands of their family.

Just like at so many cemeteries where I had conducted funerals, the city workers were waiting to place the Stolpersteine into the small “grave” that had been prepared for them. As they set the stones into the pavement, I stretched out my hands – as I have done so many times over graves – and spoke the words of committal: We commend into the care of the Eternal One the souls of Dina and Julius that he accompany them to their eternal dwelling.

Steven spoke tearfully about having gotten to know Dina’s and Julius’ children, Ilse and Werner, in America. It was clear from his words that he feels a deep family connection to them.

After Steven’s moving comments, it was my turn. I prayed in English for Dina and Julius and for all the victims of the Shoah: Most Merciful One, enthroned in the heights of heaven, may the souls of the six million Jews – victims of the Shoah, murdered, slaughtered, burned, and driven to their deaths at the hands of NS murderers and their accomplices – find their rightful resting place beneath the wings of your presence.

With the whole House of Israel, we pray for the ascension of their souls. You, the One full of compassion, shelter them under the protection of your wings for all eternity and include their souls in the bond of life eternal.

Ha-Shem be their inheritance and the Garden of Eden their final resting place; may they rest in peace wherever they lie, and may they rise again to their destined place at the end of days.

May their memory be a blessing.

Edel Sheridan-Quantz whispered to me that she knew that it was not a Jewish tradition to place flowers on graves. However, if we wanted to, they had brought flowers along for us to lay… A member of the center’s staff also placed roses beside the Stolpersteine as a sign of their respect.

Jim, Steven and I had said to each other before the ceremony that we all felt the need to say Kaddish for Julius and Dina. I don’t speak Hebrew, and so I decided to say Kaddish in German, a language that Dina and Julius would have understood.