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The Stolpersteine
The Stolpersteine, stumbling stones, are a project begun in the 1990s by the artist Gunter Demnig. Each stone is a small concrete cube topped with a brass plate, set into the pavement in front of the last freely chosen residence of a person persecuted by the Nazi regime: Jews, Sinti and Roma, political opponents, homosexuals, people with disabilities and others. The inscription begins Hier wohnte, here lived, and records the person's name, year of birth and fate. There are now more than one hundred thousand stones in Germany and many other European countries, making it the largest decentralized memorial in the world. The stones are usually initiated by residents, schools or local groups, who research the biographies in archives and pay for the stones through donations; relatives of the victims are often invited when they are laid. Many people clean the stones on anniversaries such as November 9, the anniversary of the 1938 pogrom, or January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day. The project also has critics. Some, including prominent representatives of Jewish communities, object that the names are walked on and dirtied. The city of Munich long refused to allow the stones on public ground and introduced wall-mounted memorial signs instead. Supporters argue that passers-by must bow their heads to read them. Both views are part of Germany's ongoing debate about how to remember.