Brief von Henry O. Kandler an die Firma Breuninger
Henry O. Kandler, M.D.
18 June 2010
Willem G. Van Agtmael
E. Breuninger GmbH & Co.
Marktstrasse 1-3
70173 Stuttgart
Germany
Dear Mr. Van Agtmael:
Friends of mine in Stuttgart have told me that you expect to buy the property on Dorotheenstrasse and plan to take down the building known as Hotel Silber.
This is most unfortunate. I understand a coalition of many organizations have suggested that this former headquarters of the Gestapo be made into a documentation center for the history of the Nazi period. This is most essential, the atrocities of those times must not be forgotten.
I remember well the day after Kristallnacht in 1938 when two Gestapo men came to our apartment in the Silcherstrasse looking for my father. Later that day they arrested him at Gestapo Headquarters. From this building plans were made for the deportation of Jews. Eight of my family who lived in or near Stuttgart were murdered by the Nazis, including my maternal grandmother in Auschwitz and my paternal grandfather in Theresienstadt.
I was born in Stuttgart (Heinz Kahn) and my family owned MLL (Mech. Leinenweberei Laichingen) which, I am sure, did business with Breuninger in earlier times. As you can imagine, this business was taken from us by the Nazis. As a small boy I and my brother were sent to England on a Kindertransport and then, luckily, we were reunited with our parents in America after they managed to escape from Germany. Despite this, I still have warm feelings for Stuttgart and being a Schwab.
I urge you most strongly to see that Hotel Silber be saved as a reminder of dark times which must never happen again. In addition I think it would be excellent publicity for Breuningers to sponsor a documentation center in this building.
Sincerely yours,
Henry O. Kandler, M.D.
