Stolperstein dedicated to Otto Slunský-Sonnenschein

The Stolperstein dedicated to Otto Slunský (Sonnenschein) is a small brass plaque set into the pavement on Malinovského náměstí in Brno — one of thousands of "stumbling stones" placed across European cities as part of German artist Gunter Demnig's memorial project. Each stone bears the name of a single victim of Nazi persecution and is installed at that person's last freely chosen home.

Who was Otto Slunský (Sonnenschein)?

Otto Sonnenschein was born on 3 September 1894. He was the son of Hugo Sonnenschein, a Brno physician specializing in nervous and mental disorders, and Trude (Gertrude) Sonnenschein, née Mayer. He had a brother, Pavel (Paul) Sonnenschein. The family lived at Malinovského náměstí 5 in Brno — the address from which all four of them were eventually taken by the German occupation authorities.

Where does the name "Slunský" come from?

In some records Otto Sonnenschein appears under the Czech surname Slunský. This is most likely a Czech rendering of the German "Sonnenschein" — both words refer to sunshine (German Sonne/Schein, Czech slunce). Czechizing or otherwise adapting Jewish-German family names was not unusual in interwar Brno, particularly among families living at the intersection of the city's two main linguistic communities.

What happened to him during the Holocaust?

On 5 December 1941, Otto Sonnenschein was deported from Brno to the Terezín ghetto on a transport marked K-954. He spent more than a year there before being placed on a further transport, marked Cq-39, to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp on 20 January 1943. No further record of him survives after that date — everything suggests he died in the camp shortly after arrival, as did the vast majority of people sent directly to Auschwitz at that stage of the war.

What does this stone mean in the context of the Sonnenschein family?

Otto's stone does not stand alone in Brno. At the very same address on Malinovského náměstí, Stolpersteine were also laid for his father Hugo, his mother Trude, and his brother Pavel. Four separate plaques — four separate, though intertwined, fates — together form a record of one family's destruction. The fact that each family member was deported on a different transport and a different date illustrates how, even within a single household, the machinery of extermination worked in stages, scattering relatives across time as well as space.

Where can this Stolperstein be found?

The stone is located in Brno, the second-largest city in the Czech Republic, on Malinovského náměstí, at coordinates 49.19565 N, 16.613169 E. Like the other three stones belonging to the Sonnenschein family, it is small and set flush into the pavement — easy to walk past unless you look carefully at the ground.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Stolperstein? A small brass plaque embedded in a pavement, commemorating a victim of Nazi persecution at the site of their last freely chosen home. The project was started by German artist Gunter Demnig and now comprises tens of thousands of stones across Europe.

Who was Otto Sonnenschein (Slunský)? The son of Brno physician Hugo Sonnenschein, deported in December 1941 to Terezín and then in January 1943 to Auschwitz, where all trace of him ends.

Why are there several Stolpersteine at the same address? Because the entire Sonnenschein family — parents and two sons — lived at number 5 on Malinovského náměstí, and all four were deported from that same home.

Is anything known about what happened to Otto after he reached Auschwitz? No — the surviving records stop at the date of his transport to the camp, 20 January 1943. In such cases, the absence of further documentation typically points to a swift death.