London Stolperstein stone: First UK plaque for Holocaust victim unveiled

Ada von Dantzig was killed in a concentration camp aged 24

The UK's first brass memorial plaque for a Holocaust victim has been unveiled in the heart of London.

The Stolperstein stone was laid in Golden Square, Soho, where Ada von Dantzig worked. She was murdered, along with her family, at Auschwitz in 1943.

Gunter Demnig, who created the plaques, has placed thousands across Europe.

"Most people are not aware of how close to home the Holocaust was," said Dr Toby Simpson from the Wiener Holocaust Library (WHL).

"The stones are important because they make this history personal and attach it to specific places," he added.

The commemorative plaque lives in Westminster

Ms van Dantzig, who was Dutch, came to London to learn the craft of painting conservation in the studio of the preeminent conservator Helmut Ruhemann.

A German Jew, he fled Berlin after being sacked from his post at the Kaiser Fredrich Museum in the early years of the Third Reich, the WHL said.

Artist Gunter Demnig cites the Jewish saying: "A person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten"

When Ms van Dantzig learned her family in the Netherlands were at risk, she returned home to aid their escape. However, the escape plan failed and the whole family, apart from one brother, was deported to Auschwitz.

Ms van Dantzig and her parents were killed at the concentration camp on 14 February 1943, two weeks after her sister had been killed. Her brother was killed there two months later.

• The Holocaust memorial of 70,000 stones

• How Auschwitz became centre of Nazi Holocaust

• Setting the memory of Holocaust victims in stone

The artist conceived the project 25 years ago as a one-off art-memory installation and there are now over 100,000 brass plaques in 26 countries.

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