On 4.9.2023 the first Stone of the Disappeared dedicated to Otto Holzer was placed in Nový Jičín. After the end of World War II, he was registered among the members of the Jewish religious community in Nový Jičín who perished in the occupation camps or during the occupation.

The event was initiated by Pavel Svoboda, a former teacher at the local gymnasium and a well-known athlete, whose grandfather Otto Holzer co-founded several physical education clubs in Nový Jičín.

Otto Holzer

* 14.11.1888 (Jeníkov) - † 1944 (Auschwitz)

Otto Holzer was born on November 14, 1888 in Jeníkov and lived in Nový Jičín from 1909. According to the 1910 census, his residence was located at Niederthorstrasse (Lower Gate) 648/2. He had German as his so-called vernacular and his religion was Jewish. On 11.8.1914 he entered into a civil marriage with Anna Fiedler in Nový Jičín. His wife's family lived in Nový Jičín since 1902. Because of the wedding, the Jew Otto Holzer and his wife-to-be, the German and Catholic Anna Fiedler, both renounced their religion. According to contemporary testimonies, he was physically fit and interested in gymnastics and sports. He was active in the organization ATUS (Arbeiter-Turn-und Sportverband), and by 1910 he was already a member of the workers' physical education organization Lassalle.

In 1942 he was given a transport ticket to Terezin and in October 1944 Otto Holzer was taken to Auschwitz and never returned from there, most likely perishing like most in the gas chamber. Before the Second World War there were about 300 people of Jewish origin in Nový Jičín, after the war there were reportedly only eight.

His name was therefore also listed on a memorial to the victims of racial persecution that was placed in the former Jewish cemetery in Nový Jičín in 1948. In memory of Otto Holzer, the Stone of the Disappeared was unveiled in Nový Jičín in 2023 as the first ever commemoration of its kind in the town.