Lüdenscheid plans to install three Stolpersteine for Fred Behrend and his parents on Nov. 3, Behrend’s 100th birthday. The stones are planned for the pavement outside the family’s former business at Wilhelmstraße 42, according to local news outlet come-on.de. The city announced the memorial in connection with a July visit to Lüdenscheid by Behrend’s daughter and granddaughter. Lüdenscheid is Behrend’s birthplace.
A site connected to Lüdenscheid’s Jewish history
The building at Wilhelmstraße 42 once housed the Robert Stern textile and clothing shop, run by Hermann Behrend and his wife. Hermann was the last head of Lüdenscheid’s Jewish community, according to Jüdische Allgemeine. The newspaper reports that two police officers arrested him on the morning of Nov. 10, 1938; he was later released from Sachsenhausen after agreeing to emigrate. The family left Germany in 1939, traveling via Cuba to the United States, according to the city of Lüdenscheid.
The memorial in the city
Lüdenscheid has installed Stolpersteine. The city added 17 stones on Nov. 14, 2025, following earlier installations at former residences, WDR reported. The small memorial stones are placed at locations associated with people persecuted by the Nazi regime; Wikipedia describes the project as the world’s largest decentralized memorial. The three planned stones would add the Behrend family to Lüdenscheid’s local commemorations.
A separate Philadelphia memorial
Philadelphia has a distinct public Holocaust memorial precedent: records from the Philadelphia Historical Commission identify Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza as the site of the first public Holocaust monument in the United States, dated 1964. The plaza and Lüdenscheid’s planned pavement stones are separate memorials, but both connect remembrance with a specific place.
Family members to attend
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Behrend lives in Voorhees, New Jersey, and that a visit to Lüdenscheid would include memorial sites connected to the family’s history: The Philadelphia Inquirer.
