Stolpersteine: Europe's Holocaust Memorial Stones Explained

When you’re travelling across Europe, you might notice some small brass plaques set into the ground. These are Stolpersteine, or in English stumbling stones, memorial markers for individuals who were persecuted or murdered under the Nazi regime.

Stolpersteine, two small brass plaques in ground in Eindhoven. Memorial to victims of the Holocaust — Stolpersteine in Eindhoven.

What Exactly Are Stolpersteine?

Stolpersteine are small 10cm x 10cm concrete cube upon which is a brass plate engraved with a person’s name, birth date, fate and (when known) deportation and date of death. Every one is part of the Stolpersteine project, started in the 1990’s by German artist Gunter Demnig.

Unlike traditional memorials, these markers are set at ground level, usually at the last freely chosen residence of the person they commemorate. Also unlike traditional memorials where one monument is designed to represent a group of people, each stone represents a single victim or survivor of the Holocaust.

‘A person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten’

The idea behind Stolpersteine is simple but effective: to remember the individual rather than the numbers. The Nazis want to dehumanise people, turn them into statistics and then erase them. Gunter Demnig designed Stolpersteine to reverse this process. He was inspired by a quote from the Talmud that says, ‘ ‘A person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten’

These plaques, laid in the places where people go about their daily lives, encourage a moment of reflection for an individual rather than a series of historic events.

Stolpersteine: What You’ll See

The details on a Stolpersteine can vary, but you can expect to see:

A Name: A single name. One stone, one person.
A year of birth
The date of death, if known
The concentration camp they were deported to and the place of death, if known.
You might also see the words flucht or flucht in den tod, meaning the person fled or was murdered attempting to escape.

Then are some exceptions to the ‘one stone, one name’ rule. In some places, such atrocities took place that hundreds, or even thousands, of individual blocks would be required. In this case, a stolperschwelle – stumbling threshold-will be installed.

Although most commemorate a person who died under the Nazi regime, there are some stones that are dedicated to people who survived.

One of the most touching examples of this is seen in the way that the Stolpersteine project insists that families are ‘reunited’ in remembrance. Surviving family members are included when ever possible and receive their own stone.

Where & How to Find Stolpersteine

Gunter Demnig and his team have installed over 116,000 stones in 31 countries across Europe. The project is ongoing. Currently, you’ll find Stolpersteine in:

Austria
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Hungary
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania

Luxembourg
The Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Moldova
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
The United Kingdom

Germany has the greatest concentration of Stolpersteine. In many a German city you can see where the Jewish communities lived pre WW2 just from the concentration of these little blocks in any given area.

The United Kingdom has just two. One in London for Dutch born Ada Rosa van Dantzig and one in Edinburgh for Jane Haining, a local woman who worked at a Scottish Mission School in Budapest until her arrest in 1944.

Stolperstein outside Dortmund prison museum — Stolperstein outside the prison

Finding Stolpersteine

The most organic way is just to wander and look! You’re more likely to find them in old city centre areas and those that were historically Jewish districts.

If you have a specific name or location in mind, you can look up the details online beforehand. Permission is needed from local authorities before a stone is laid, many towns and cities publish details of the Stolpersteine they have given permission for.