A Stolperstein (pronounced [ˈʃtɔlpɐˌʃtaɪn]; plural Stolpersteine; in English “stumbling block”) is a ten-centimetre (four-inch) concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. The Stolpersteine project, initiated by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, aims to commemorate persons at the last place that they chose freely to reside, work or study (with exceptions possible on a case-by-case basis) before they fell victim to Nazi terror, forced euthanasia, eugenics, deportation to a concentration or extermination camp, or escaped persecution by emigration or suicide.[1] As of June 2023, 100,000[2] Stolpersteine have been laid, making the Stolpersteine project the world’s largest decentralized memorial.
They are pretty effective at showing how many victims there were. There are three right in front of my door and in many German cities you can’t walk more than a few dozen meters without seeing one.
I was stationed in Germany in the mid 90s and while growing up I heard all the numbers of the number of people who died in the Holocaust.
It really absorbed the scale of it until I went to Dachau and saw the maps of the money of camps…
These stones are great. It makes it personal.