There are now more than 70,000 “stolpersteine,” or “stumbling stones,” 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.

The idea was first conceived by artist Gunter Demnig in Cologne in 1992 as part of an initiative commemorating Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust.  He installed the first Berlin Stolperstein four years later.  He has now laid over 70,000 stones, personally overseeing the wording and installation of each one.  The task keeps him on the road for 300 days a year.

Today, the Stolpersteine exist in 20 languages and 24 countries.  In 2017, the Pestalozzi school in Buenos Aires became the first site outside Europe to host one, honouring hundreds of German Jewish children who found refuge there in exile.

Unlike some other memorials that focus on specific persecuted groups, the Stolpersteine honour all victims of the Nazi regime, including Jewish, Sinti, Roma, disabled, dissident, and Afro-German and “asocial” citizens.  The 70,000th Stolperstein was laid for Willy Zimmerer, a German man with learning disabilities murdered at Hadamar psychiatric hospital outside of Frankfurt.

Despite its vast and international scope, the Stolpersteine 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.

Source:  The Guardian, February 18, 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/18/stumbling-stones-a-different-vision-of-holocaust-remembrance