English translation of the speech by Dagmar Nix on 1.7.15

Englische Übersetzung des Beitrags von Dagmar Nix am 1.7.15 zur Stolpersteinverlegung vor dem Haus Kirchplatz 2, Obernkirchen

I am very pleased that these stumbling stones are placed here in front of our house Kirchplatz 2 to honor its former Jewish residents. My husband and I acquired this house in 1984.

Since then my husband runs in the ground floor his dentists practice, we live in the upper floor, in the same flat which was inhabited until 1939 by Leopold Lion, his wife Karola née Adler and their kids Ernst and Ursula.

They loved to stay here. But a criminal regime didn’t allow them any other option than to leave their place of residence and their home country in order to prevent even further evil. They managed to escape to a very far away country which has become their new home: New Zealand.

I am very happy to come close to Ulla Lion and her husband Werner Alford, her brother Ernst Lion, but also to Erich Adler and his wife Amely and to Manfred Schönfeld and his wife Johanna already in 1989 when they made their common visit to Obernkirchen. They also made a visit to our house then. This was a very emotional encounter especially for Ulla and Ernst – but it was their personal wish.

It was and is a great pleasure and quite impressing for me that today at noon the children of Ulla Lion and Erich Adler are also present and are able to visit this flat. This are the two sons of Ulla Alford née Lion, i.e. Michael and John with their wives Maricela and Lani as well as the children of Erich Adler i.e. Mark with his wife Joan and their daughter Vivian with her son Jeremy.

You know that stumbling stones also will be placed in front of the house formerly inhabited by Erich Adler and his parents. My grandmother had a very special relation to the Adler family, but this was already fully mentioned in my father’s “appreciation speech for our guest”.

I truly hope that the stumbling stones will help that these persons and their fate always will be commemorated and will never be forgotten and that these stumbling stones will remind us permanently to be alert and to avoid that this will happen again.