Stolpersteine

These are Stumbling Stones, and in my opinion some of the most moving and over looked memorials to individual victims of the Holocaust. Found throughout Prague and in 17 other countries across Europe, these tiny but powerful memorials began by the German artist Gunter Demnig. Known as “Stolpersteine”, or “Stumbling Stones”, there are now more than 70,000 such memorial blocks laid in more than 1,200 cities and towns across Europe and Russia. Each commemorates a victim outside their last-known freely chosen residence. Details usually include place of birth, information about the person’s deportation and imprisonment at a concentration camp, and their fate, if known. Despite its vast and international scope, these Stumbling Stones remain a grassroots initiative. Local groups – often residents of a particular street, or schoolchildren working on a project – come together to research the biographies of local victims, and to raise the €120 it costs to install each stone.