Location
Wolliner Str. 3
District
Mitte
Stone was laid
July 2007
Born
09 November 1878 in Zürich
Deportation
on 02 March 1943
to
Auschwitz
Murdered
Ephraim Worrmann was born on 9 November 1878 in Zurich. In 1931 he was listed in the Greater Berlin Jewish directory as Edwin Worrmann. He probably had his first name changed to be less immediately recognizable as a Jew. Perhaps he did not feel any religious allegiance any more.
When the population census was carried out in May 1939, Edwin Worrmann was registered as resident at Wolliner Straße 3. (It is not known whether he knew his neighbor Herrmann Holzheim, who also lived in the relatively small house at Wolliner Straße 3, or had any contact with him through the Jewish Community, for instance).
On 25 August 1940, Ephraim Wortmann announced his withdrawal from the Jewish Community in Berlin.
At that time, Johannes Theile was the pastor for the village church at Alt-Staaken. He made it possible for the Jewish scholar Ernst Althausen to perform eight baptisms and two marriages at the church. Edwin/Ephraim Worrmann was one of those christened, aged 63, on 23 February 1941. Historical research has revealed several cases of Christians with Jewish origins who managed to escape deportation by becoming baptized. But it did not save Ephraim Worrmann’s life. On 2 March 1943, he was deported to Auschwitz on the “32nd transport to the east” and murdered there.
The findings of a work group set up in 2007 by Protestant parishes in Berlin to research cases of deported Christians with Jewish origins (Getauft und deportiert – Evangelische Gemeinden recherchieren über Christen jüdischer Herkunft) provided the impetus for the first stumbling stones to be laid in Berlin-Mitte and the Rosenthaler Vorstadt area for victims of Nazi murder who were christened but persecuted because of their Jewish backgrounds. 12 Berlin parishes resolved to commemorate the names of these hitherto overlooked victims of Nazism, despite the failure of the Protestant church at the time to confront their terrible fates. Pastor Rauer of the village church at Alt-Staaken drew the public’s attention to the fate of Ephraim Worrmann.
Class 6c of Linden elementary school, in the West-Staaken area of Spandau, raised the money for the stumbling stone. Dankwart Hauskeller, the class teacher at the time, came up with the idea and convinced his pupils and their parents to participate. Many of them travelled the considerable distance to Berlin-Mitte to attend the laying of the stumbling stone.
When the population census was carried out in May 1939, Edwin Worrmann was registered as resident at Wolliner Straße 3. (It is not known whether he knew his neighbor Herrmann Holzheim, who also lived in the relatively small house at Wolliner Straße 3, or had any contact with him through the Jewish Community, for instance).
On 25 August 1940, Ephraim Wortmann announced his withdrawal from the Jewish Community in Berlin.
At that time, Johannes Theile was the pastor for the village church at Alt-Staaken. He made it possible for the Jewish scholar Ernst Althausen to perform eight baptisms and two marriages at the church. Edwin/Ephraim Worrmann was one of those christened, aged 63, on 23 February 1941. Historical research has revealed several cases of Christians with Jewish origins who managed to escape deportation by becoming baptized. But it did not save Ephraim Worrmann’s life. On 2 March 1943, he was deported to Auschwitz on the “32nd transport to the east” and murdered there.
The findings of a work group set up in 2007 by Protestant parishes in Berlin to research cases of deported Christians with Jewish origins (Getauft und deportiert – Evangelische Gemeinden recherchieren über Christen jüdischer Herkunft) provided the impetus for the first stumbling stones to be laid in Berlin-Mitte and the Rosenthaler Vorstadt area for victims of Nazi murder who were christened but persecuted because of their Jewish backgrounds. 12 Berlin parishes resolved to commemorate the names of these hitherto overlooked victims of Nazism, despite the failure of the Protestant church at the time to confront their terrible fates. Pastor Rauer of the village church at Alt-Staaken drew the public’s attention to the fate of Ephraim Worrmann.
Class 6c of Linden elementary school, in the West-Staaken area of Spandau, raised the money for the stumbling stone. Dankwart Hauskeller, the class teacher at the time, came up with the idea and convinced his pupils and their parents to participate. Many of them travelled the considerable distance to Berlin-Mitte to attend the laying of the stumbling stone.