The largest, and most controversial, Holocaust monument in the world takes the shape of more than one hundred thousand markers scattered through the streets of European countries from Spain to Ukraine, each commemorating the last known address of a victim of the Holocaust.
Most monuments consist of a single object, or multiple objects on the same property. In the case of stolpersteine, the world’s largest Holocaust memorial, the concept is exactly the opposite. Conceived in the early 1990’s by Gunter Demnig as an art project, stolpersteine, or ‘stumbling stones’, consist of small brass and concrete markers placed at the last known home or workplace of someone killed or persecuted by the Holocaust.
Stolpersteine were not originally intended to be the enormous project that they are today. In the early 1990s, Deming was working on a separate project: a memorialization of the path Romani citizens were forced to take to railroad cars in Cologne following the Auschwitz decree. In a way that online sources give no consistent account of– and which could not be confirmed with anyone at the Stolpersteine Foundation– that project sparked the idea for stolpersteine, and the first were installed at that site, in memory of the Romani sent to Auschwitz.
These original stolpersteine– in whatever form they took– were intended to be a one–off, conceptual project, but were warmly received by the relatives of those they honored, and members of the surrounding community. With that encouragement, the project spread like wildfire.
Each marker begins with the words ``hier wohnte” or the national language equivalent of “here lived”, followed by the person's name, and information such as their birth, deportation, and death dates. This information is verified through careful research done by members of the Stolpersteine Foundation. Any family members of the deceased are also contacted prior to the installation.
Gunter Demnig is passionate about maintaining an attitude of respect, honor, and empathy around the creation and installation of the individual markers. This is one reason for the use of one marker per person when possible– Demnig felt that this choice emphasized the value and individuality of each person which Nazi ideology and policy sought to destroy. Each marker is hand-made by Berlin sculptor Michael Friedrichs-Friedlaender, and most are personally installed by Demnig.
Unlike many other monuments to the victims of the Holocaust, stolpersteine are installed to honor people of every background: Jews, Roma, Poles, homosexuals, communists, the disabled, and anyone else who came to harm at the hand of Nazi prejudice. Nor are they specifically placed in honor of those who lost their lives to the Holocaust– any who suffered can be honored with the placement of stolpersteine. This diversity has led to criticism from some groups who feel it detracts from the suffering of the Jewish people.
Stolpersteine also depart from the traditional model for monuments in their decentralized placement and small size. At just ten centimeters square, sitting at sidewalk level, those who find them tend to ‘stumble’ upon them– either literally or figuratively– by surprise. This aspect tends to invite the most criticism for the project, because of the markers’ physical position underfoot, and the many layers of symbolism surrounding the terms used for them.
Some of this symbolism in language is intentional– Demnig wanted the viewers of the project to feel both that they were ‘stumbling onto’ a piece of history, and to feel a ‘stumbling’ in their hearts at the reminder of the people who once lived and worked on the very street where they now stand in the present day.
However, critics, such as members of the civil government of Munich, cite other connotations. During the Nazi regime, Jewish cemeteries were desecrated, with the tombstones carted away and used as pavers for sidewalks, the engraving still visible. Though stolpersteine are not meant to resemble anything like a tombstone, some nonetheless find the connotation distasteful (Demnig). In general, critics dislike the fact that the markers are stepped on, which gives an image of the Jewish people being once again underfoot.
Another commonly discussed concern has to do with an anti-Semitic saying popular during the Nazi regime: “A Jew must be buried here.” might be said when tripping over an uneven stone. Though the official stolpersteine website states that “Contrary to what certain online sources claim, Gunter Demnig did NOT want to create a link to a certain anti-Semitic expression apparently used in Nazi Germany that he did not even know”, this saying was used as support for arguments against the installation of stolpersteine in Munich in 2004 (City Council of the City Capital of Munich) (Demnig).
Munich is a specific outlier in the stolpersteine story that must be discussed, because of the ban on their installation within city limits: a decision their government came to following a meeting of their city council, during which many representatives of the Jewish community– and descendants of Holocaust victims– spoke out against the project. One member quoted Mrs. Charlotte Knobloch, a leader of the Jewish community in Munich, and a survivor of the Holocaust, who said, “The artist does not share our past, my past, the past I have experienced myself when human beings were trampled under foot, attacked with boots, hurt by boots. Shall it happen again that the names of the people, who have experienced endless pain before, be trampled upon again?” (City Council of the City Capital of Munich) (Heger).
The ban on stolpersteine notwithstanding, Munich proudly displays many memorials to the Holocaust. For the most part, their criticisms, and those of other opponents to the project, do not directly involve Mr. Demnig or his intentions in creating stolpersteine, but criticize the project itself in no uncertain terms because of how it is regarded by parts of the Jewish community.
Tamara Heger is a doctoral candidate in American Studies with an expertise in 20th century German and American history and the Flossenbürg concentration camp. Her perception of the reception of stolpersteine in German academic circles is markedly less dramatic than what one might find reported on the internet. “I have never met anyone who personally objected to the stolpersteine,” she said, when asked if she felt that the issue was as contentious as sources like the Munich city council minutes of March 3rd, 2016 might suggest (Heger).
“I know that there was a lot of controversy in the Jewish community in Munich, who felt that this form of commemoration was disrespectful. What we do see [more often] is that there are many people in Germany who object to Holocaust memory in general, because they feel like it perpetuates what they think of as “Schuldkult,” or a cult of guilt. These people would like for any form of public commemoration of the Holocaust to vanish” (Heger).
As to her personal opinion of stolpersteine, which she regularly runs across in Rosenberg, where she is employed, she said, “I understand that the concept may not feel entirely appropriate for everybody. However, I appreciate the project because it is a reminder that the space has a history, that individuals lived there who had plans and hopes and dreams for their lives that were violently cut short” (Heger).
Overall, she felt that, “These projects do a lot to show that the Holocaust is not something that just happened somewhere else, but that it is a part of our very own history, and happened right at our doorstep and among the people we may still know” (Heger). In a word, memory.
Despite the deep controversy surrounding stolpersteine, the Stolpersteine Foundation carries on its work of honoring those lost to the Holocaust. Demnig is no longer able to install as many stolpersteine as he once did, as he is now 76, but local groups continue to install new markers, and members of the Foundation individually research requests for new stolpersteine to be laid.
Last year, the stolpersteine Foundation celebrated three milestones. On May 26th, Demnig placed the 100,000th stolperstein in Nuremberg, Germany, in memory of Johann Wild, who was arrested and executed by guillotine for a “radio crime”. On October 1st, Demnig was awarded the Order of Merit of the German State of Berlin, to honor his work on the stolpersteine project and its benefit to the city. Finally, later in October, Demnig celebrated his 76th birthday– an event which led him to decide to spend less time traveling for the stolpersteine project, and more time at home, for the sake of his family and health.
No monument to an event as horrific as the Holocaust will ever be without its own measure of controversy. Despite its complicated past and present, the stolpersteine project accomplishes its one true goal with efficacy: those who come across the markers have no choice but to remember. As Ms. Heger said of her own experiences with stolpersteine she has encountered, “When the person was around my age, they linger in my thoughts for a while, and I wonder who they may have been beyond the information on the stone” (Heger).
There is something poetic in the idea of a person’s memory living on in the very place most important to them in life. Stolpersteine ensure that as long as the streets of Europe are traveled, the memory of those who walked before will not be lost.
