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.
Sources. Story: ['Source Story: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mina_Sluijter, https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/138626/Stumbling-Stones-Kerkstraat-378.htm, https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/197419/mina-sluijter'] Photos: Door Paul2 - Eigen werk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120000548
