Mina Sluijter

We are at Kerkstraat  378 in Amsterdam, at the home where Mina Sluijter lived. On the pavement lies a golden Stolperstein, bearing her name and her fate.

Mina was born on May 31, 1916, and worked as a seamstress and costumier. In 1942, she lived here. At that time, she regularly visited a non-Jewish woman with whom she had a homosexual relationship. That visit proved fatal. She was betrayed by a neighbor and arrested on July 24, 1942. The police report stated that she was detained because she “visited an Aryan woman with whom she was said to have a homosexual relationship … also Jewish.”

Two months later, on September 30, 1942, Mina was murdered in Auschwitz. She was 26 years old.

The Stolperstein at this site is a quiet reminder of her life. It tells us that the Nazis persecuted not only Jews but also people who defied the prevailing norms about love and relationships.