Who am I?

I am Brian Luber and a descendant of both the Rothschild and Heilbrunn families for whom we have dedicated the installation of Stolpersteine in Sontra.

I am the great grandson of both the Rothschild and Heilbrunn Patriarchs, Wolf Rothschild and Meier Heilbrunn.

Both my grandparents Herman Rothschild and Meta Rothschild/Heilbrunn and Mother Gretl Luber/ Rothschild are being remembered with Stolpersteine in front of their original home.

 

How did this event come about?

In 2019 I made a trip to Germany together with my brother Colin, his wife Lorna and son Raphael as well as his now wife Tamara.

We visited places which were of significance to our family. These included Hamburg, where my father was born, Bergen Belsen where Herman, Meta and Gretl where interned and Berlin, Troebitz and lastly Sontra where the Rothschilds and Heilbrunns had lived for very many years.

 

During tours of Hamburg and Berlin we learnt about the significance of Stolpersteine and that some 60000 had been installed. The idea of stolpersteine was spoken about but then again forgotten.

 

On return to Australia, I gave several presentations about the trip. Once Lea Schellhase, as a student doing a thesis on the Holocaust expressed interest things moved ahead. I gave this presentation of the trip to theGerman State Of Hesse “Friends of the Jews organisation”. The president of this organisation is Ludger Arnold. Ludger and Lea were keen to promote the installation of Stolpersteine in Sontra and so the work began. During the next few years, we established a close contact to them of course via Zoom.

 

How did the event grow?

Once we realised that 14 members of the Rothschild/ Heilbrunn family were eligible for Stolpersteine the idea was launched to invite all related family members from around the world.

The event became the Sontra family reunion. The date was set and the work began.

 

How did it go?

Our two supporters in Germany both Lea and Ludger where outstanding and I could not fault anything they have done. The event at the school was really significant and in my opinion has allowed us to do our part to overcome antisemitism. The school prize for the next five years will keep this event alive. The key event was incredible with the council giving full support with security, a band and excellent attendance. I enjoyed the Grill evening very much as it was relaxed in a nice environment and I got to meet the locals.

 

I believe the harder part of the event was to get the extended family interested to attend. What we did achieve is a good cross section of the family attending from  across the world.

Personally, it was great to meet most of the attendees for the first time and expand my acquaintance with new family members mainly from the USA and Israel.

 

This was my third visit to Sontra, the first being with my parents and brother in 1978 and then again in 2019. The place and sights have become quite familiar to me.

 

My objective met ?

Personally, my focus was to install the stolpersteine, and specifically for my grandfather Herman Rothschild. His Stolperstein is the only place in the world where he has his own remembrance plaque.

 

This was very significant for me.