Stolperstein - stumble stone/block

[onlyMark]

Yesterday I made a bit of a report about the concentration camp at Buchenwald. Related to that theme I remembered something I had seen in a number of German towns and I think there may be few on the forum who know about them. Correct me if I'm wrong but unless you live in Germany or maybe one or two other European countries, plus you look down as well as up when you are walking, you may not be aware they exist. No doubt K2 knows of them but I'd be interested to know if anyone, especially those in Germany, also do.

They are, in German, called Stolpersteine. In English they'd be called a stumble stones or stumble blocks.
It is said that in Germany before WWII if a non-Jew tripped over a protruding cobblestone in the road they'd say that that is where a Jew is buried.
From 1993 onwards a large number or commemorative stones have been laid in German streets, roughly the size of a cobblestone. These have been extended to currently 18 countries and 48000 stones. They are memorials for an individual victim of Nazism – both those who died and survivors and are not restricted to Jews. They can be Sinti, Romani, black, homosexuals, in fact any individual that was persecuted by the Nazi authorities.

Walking around a German town today I was looking for a few things, one of which was an example of this. I saw many in Frankfurt but didn't have my camera with me, but I did today. I'll just post a photo of one to give you the idea. We hear and see the large memorials that exist in many countries/places but these Stolpersteine are so understated as to be almost invisible. To me, the fact they are for individuals and hardly seen or thought of, makes them more poignant.

Imagine walking down a pleasant cobbled street and occasionally seeing one cobble stone that doesn't quite fit in with the rest. Maybe you don't see it at all as you are busy looking in the shops. But if you do, and you stop and look down, maybe even have to crouch down if your eyes are like mine, you may well see something like this -




"Here lived Rosa Best. Born Lyon 1910. Deported 1943 Auschwitz. Murdered."

[Deleted]

In northeastern France, I've seen lots of small embedded metal things like that but only as scenic walk markers, never as deportation memorials. Of course, there are countless plaques on residential buildings, schools and administrative buildings commemorating the victims with more plaques all the time -- there will be plaques on the buildings concerning the killings 3 weeks ago in Paris.

[onlyMark]

My geography in France, especially of smaller places, leaves a lot to be desired. If you've been to any of these places then that's where you'd find some -

L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer
Beaulieu-sous-la-Roche
Bourneau
Fontaines
Fontenay-le-Comte
Longèves
Mervent
Nieul-sur-l'Autise

[bjd]

I have read about those Stolpersteine. I certainly saw some in Berlin but don't remember seeing any in Leipzig. But then, I haven't spent much time in Germany and none at all in any of the towns listed above.

[onlyMark]

I've not been much to France, apart from usually driving though it, and I certainly don't know the above towns anyway. I've been to quite a few German towns/cities and dropped across a few then, but not many at all. Especially as they can be difficult to notice and are often tucked away in back streets somewhere.

[Deleted]

I've heard of Fontenay-le-Comte and maybe also l'Aiguillon-sur-Mer but I have never been to any of those places.

[lagatta]

I've definitely seen them in towns in Germany. Evidently they are also in neighbouring countries. In Italy, there were many plaques for victims of fascism and "nazifascismo", which sounds like overkill "you are a Nazifascist!" but refers to the alliance between the two. Also plaques in France, especially in Lyon (resistance fighters) and eastern Paris (the leftist Jewish teenagers we have discussed in earlier threads, in particular a young girl whose plaque disturbed me due to her early death, high up at the limit of Belleville and Ménilmontant)

I utterly hate the huge concrete monument to Holocaust dead in Berlin, and I'm sure the interested parties would have been disgusted by it and would have wanted some trees planted and graceful sculptures instead, but nobody but neo-Nazis would dare suggest removing the damned thing and putting in parks and housing for the living, with appropriate commemorations of the dead.