Stumbling stones honor Holocaust victims

PictureArtist Guenther Demnig







Brick by brick, artist Guenther Demnig is working to change how those who perished in the Holocaust are remembered in Germany. He is installing small, square brass bricks in front of the victims’ houses, each one inscribed with the name of the person who once lived there.

Guenther first got the idea for the Stolperstein, or "stumbling stones," as part of an art project back in the mid-1990s when he installed 55 such commemorative stones in Berlin sidewalks. “Formal memorials are too abstract,” he says.  “Not so with the stumbling stones. Suddenly they are there, right outside your front door, at your feet, in front of you." 

In the ensuing years, the project has mushroomed. Now, there are more than 30,000 commemorative bricks in dozens of cities and towns across Germany. 
Posted June 2014

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