Stolperstein

Stolperstein in Bonn for Ida Arensberg: "Here lived Ida Arensberg. née Benjamin *1870 - deported 1942. Murdered in Theresienstadt on 18.9.1942"
Overview of countries where stolpersteins have been installed. Belarus and Lithuania will follow in 2016.

A stolperstein (German pronunciation: [ˈʃtɔlpəʁˌʃtaɪn] from German, literally "stumbling stone") is a type of monument created by artist Gunter Demnig to commemorate victims of Nazi oppression, including the Holocaust. Stolpersteins are small, cobblestone-sized memorials for individual victims of Nazism. They commemorate individuals – both those who died and survivors – who were consigned by the Nazis to prisons, euthanasia facilities, sterilization clinics, concentration camps, and extermination camps, as well as those who responded to persecution by emigrating or committing suicide.

While the vast majority of stolpersteins commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust, others have been placed for Sinti and Romani people (also called gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, black people, Christians (both Protestants and Catholics) opposed to the Nazis, members of the Communist Party and the anti-Nazi Resistance, military deserters, and the physically and mentally disabled.

The list of places that have stolpersteins now extends to several countries and hundreds of cities and towns. As of 11 January 2015, over 50,000 stolpersteins have been laid in 18 countries in Europe,[1] making the project the world's largest memorial.[2][3]

History

Before the Holocaust, it used to be the custom in Germany for non-Jews to say, on stumbling over a protruding stone, "There must be a Jew buried here."[4][5]

"Here lived"

Gunter Demnig

Information for stolpersteins comes from schools, relatives, and various organizations and especially the database of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.[6] The residential street addresses of Shoah victims in Germany are also available on the database version of the 1939 Germany Minority Census published online.[7]

Once the research is done, Demnig manufactures a concrete cube 10 centimetres (3.9 in) on a side, which he then covers with a sheet of brass. Into the brass he stamps the details of the individual: the name and year of birth, as well as the dates of deportation and death, if known. The words Hier wohnte (here lived) are written on most of the memorials; others are installed at the individual's place of employment and refer instead to their work. The stolperstein is then set, slightly raised, into the pavement or sidewalk in front of the last residence of the victim to "trip up the passerby" and draw attention to the memorial.[8]

The cost of the stolpersteins is covered by donations, collections, individual citizens, contemporary witnesses, school classes, or communities. Until 2012, one stolperstein cost €95,[9][10] a price that had remained the same since the project's inception. In 2012, the price increased to €120.[11]

First stolpersteins

16 December 1992 marked 50 years since Heinrich Himmler signed a decree to deport Sinti and Roma to extermination camps. Gunter Demnig used the occasion to commemorate the prelude to the deportations by engraving the decree’s first sentence onto a stone. This first stolperstein was laid in front of Cologne’s Historic Town Hall. It was Demnig’s intention to thus engage in the debate currently underway about granting Roma from former Yugoslavia the right of residence in Germany. Gunter Demnig has explained that the next stolpersteins were triggered by an encounter with a Cologne inhabitant who had lived through the war and was firmly convinced that no Sinti or Roma had ever lived in her neighbourhood.

Thus was born his idea to commemorate all victims of Nazi persecution in front of their last chosen place of residence. A stolperstein would symbolically return them to their neighbourhood so many years after being torn away from their daily lives. In 1993, Gunter Demnig formulated the laying of commemorative stones for the victims of National Socialism as a theoretical concept in the publication “Größenwahn – Kunstprojekte für Europa” (“Megalomania: Art Projects for Europe“). A year later, he made a first step in this direction at the behest of Kurt Pick, a priest at St Anthony’s Church in Cologne – he exhibited 250 stolpersteins for murdered Sinti and Roma in the church. In January 1995, these concrete blocks measuring 10 by 10 centimetres (3.9 by 3.9 in) were laid into the pavements of the city of Cologne,[12] followed by installations in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin.

In 1996, he set out 55 stolpersteins in Berlin within the scope of the project “Artists Research Auschwitz”.[8] In 1997, he mounted the first two stolpersteins for the Jehovah's Witnesses Matthias and Johann Nobis in St. Georgen, Austria on the suggestion of Andreas Maislinger, founder of Arts Initiative KNIE and the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service. Friedrich Amerhauser was the first mayor, who gave Gunter Demnig, the permission to install stolpersteins.[13] Four years later, he received permission to install 600 more stolpersteins in Cologne.

See the List of cities by country that have stolpersteins for stolpersteins in other countries.

Timeline of quantities

The installation of a Stolperstein in Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxembourg

As of October 2007, Gunter Demnig had mounted more than 13,000 stolpersteins in more than 280 cities. He expanded his project beyond the borders of Germany to Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary. Some stolpersteins were scheduled to be laid in Poland on 1 September 2006, but permission was withdrawn and the installation was cancelled.

On 24 July 2009 the 20,000th stolperstein was unveiled in the Rotherbaum district of Hamburg, Germany.[14] In attendance were Gunter Demnig, representatives of the Hamburg government and its Jewish community, and a descendant of the victims memorialized.

As of 15 May 2010, there were over 22,000 stolpersteins in 530 European cities and towns in eight countries formerly under Nazi control or occupied by Nazi Germany.[15][16] By 8 July 2010, there were over 25,000 stolpersteins in 569 cities and towns.[10] As of 24 June 2011, Demnig had installed 30,000 stolpersteins.[17]

From the artist's own website: There are already over 32,000 STOLPERSTEINE ("Stumbling Stones") in over 700 locations. Many cities and villages across Europe, not only in Germany, have expressed an interest in the project. Stones have already been laid in many places in Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, in the Czech Republic, in Poland (seven in Wroclaw, one in Slubice), in Ukraine (Pereiaslav), in Italy (Rome) and Norway (Oslo).[18]

Stolperstein No. 40,000: During his TEDxKOELN talk on 14 May 2013 Gunter Demnig announced the installation of the 40,000th stolperstein on 3 July 2013 in Oldambt (Drieborg), Netherlands. It was one of the 10 stolpersteins in memory of Dutch communists who were executed by the German occupation forces after they were betrayed by countrymen for hiding Jews and Roma.[19][20][21]

Stolperstein No. 50,000: On 11 January 2015 Stolperstein No. 50.000 was installed in Turin, Italy for Eleonora Levi [22]

Criticism

The city of Villingen-Schwenningen hotly debated the idea of allowing stolpersteins in 2004 and voted against them.[23] There is a memorial at the railway station and there are plans for a second memorial.[24]

Munich has rejected stolpersteins, following objections raised by Munich's Jewish Community and particularly its chairwoman, Charlotte Knobloch, then also President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. In other cities, permission for the project was preceded by long, sometimes emotional discussions. In Krefeld, the vice-chairman of the Jewish community, Michael Gilad, said that Demnig's memorials reminded him of how the Nazis had used Jewish grave stones as slabs for sidewalks.[25] A compromise was reached that a stolperstein could be installed if a prospective site was approved by both the house's owner and (if applicable) the victim's relatives.[26]

The city of Pulheim was still debating the issue in 2010.[16]

Reactions of passers-by

People’s attention is drawn towards the stolpersteins by reports in newspapers and their personal experience. Their thoughts are directed towards the victims.[15][27][28][29] Cambridge historian Joseph Pearson argues that "It is not what is written [on the stolpersteins] which intrigues, because the inscription is insufficient to conjure a person. It is the emptiness, void, lack of information, the maw of the forgotten, which gives the monuments their power and lifts them from the banality of a statistic."[30]

Film

A documentary, Stolperstein, was made by Dörte Franke in 2008.[31]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ "There are 48,000 #Stolpersteine in 18 countries in Europe". Stolpersteins on Twitter. 20 August 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  2. ↑ "Theatrical release of award-winning doc Stumbling Stone". Documentary Campus. 5 November 2008. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  3. ↑ Swann Nowak. "Stolpersteine vs Memorial". FH Potsdam. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "Stolpersteine für München - Presse-Archiv" (in German). Alt.stolpersteine-muenchen.de. 16 June 2004. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  5. ↑ ""Jude" als Schimpfwort" (in German). Archiv.raid-rush.ws. 28 March 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  6. ↑ "Stolpersteine" (in German). Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  7. ↑ See the website of Tracing the Past, a non-profit organization based in Berlin, Germany (retrieved November 11, 2014).
  8. 1 2 Ingrid Scheffer (2008). "Do Tread on Me!". Goethe-Institute. Archived from the original on 30 October 2008. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Kirsten Grieshaber, "Plaques for Nazi Victims Offer a Personal Impact" The New York Times (Nov. 29, 2003) Retrieved June 14, 2010
  10. 1 2 Kirsten Grieshaber, "German Artist Gunter Demnig Revives Names of Holocaust Victims" Associated Press article. Retrieved July 15, 2010
  11. ↑ Stolpersteine Salzburg FAQ Stolpersteine Salzburg. Retrieved October 11, 2011
  12. ↑ http://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/en/projekt Koordinierungsstelle Stolpersteine Berlin Retrieved July 23, 2013
  13. ↑ http://www.auslandsdienst.at/de/projekt/pressearchiv-1997/pressemitteilung-der-zeugen-jehovas-17-juli-1997-%E2%80%9Estolpersteine-zur (de)
  14. ↑ "Europaweit 20.000ster Stolperstein wird verlegt" German-Jewish website, haGalil. Retrieved June 11, 2010 (German)
  15. 1 2 Livia Rüger, Stolpern über Stolpersteine Main Post (15 May 2010) Retrieved 15 June 2010 (German)
  16. 1 2 Wolfgang Mrziglod, "Stadt Pulheim will keine Stolpersteine" Kölnische Rundschau official website. (May 29, 2010) Retrieved June 21, 2010 (German)
  17. ↑ Zu erfolgreich" Retrieved October 11, 2011 (German)
  18. ↑ Technical Aspects Retrieved May 27, 2013
  19. ↑ "'Stolpersteine' (stumble blocks): Tracks and paths: Gunter Demnig at TEDxKoeln " Retrieved June 13, 2013 (German)
  20. ↑ "'40.000 Stolpersteine, 40.000 Schicksale'" Retrieved July 7, 2013 (German)
  21. ↑ Stern.de 3 juli 2013: 'Der 40.000ste ist ein Kommunist' Retrieved June 13, 2013 (German)
  22. ↑ Twitteraccount Stolperstein
  23. ↑ "Ärger über falschen Eintrag zu Stolpersteinen im Lexikon" Südkurier (11 October 2011). Retrieved October 11, 2011 (German)
  24. ↑ "Auch der Künstler will Geld verdienen....." (Comments section) Südkurier (October 11, 2011). Retrieved October 11, 2011 (German)
  25. ↑ "Der Ton wird schärfer" Westdeutsche Zeitung (24 December 2005) Retrieved 12 June 2010 (German)
  26. ↑ Lutz Mäurer, "Stolpersteine: Kompromiss gefunden" Westdeutsche Zeitung (24 March 2006) Retrieved 12 June 2010 (German)
  27. ↑ "Sealed in Stone" Retrieved June 20, 2010
  28. ↑ Renate Stendhal, "Stumbling Stones in German Streets" scene4 magazine (November 2009) Retrieved June 20, 2010
  29. ↑ Stacy Perman, "The Right Questions" Tablet Magazine (July 25, 2007) Retrieved June 20, 2010
  30. ↑ "The Needle: Berlin" Retrieved June 28, 2011
  31. ↑ Stolperstein Movie Maze, official website. Retrieved June 12, 2010 (German)

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Sources

External links

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