Heidenau’s city council voted Thursday to stop installing Stolpersteine, brass plaques honoring Holocaust victims. Local AfD and CDU councilors backed the move; supporters claimed many relatives consider plaques inappropriate because passersby walk over them.
Created by German artist Gunter Demnig, Stolpersteine are palm-sized brass plaques bearing the names and fates of Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis, often placed near their former homes. More than 126,000 have been installed in over 30 countries; the first was laid in Cologne in 1992.
Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said he was ashamed and noted that plaques in Berlin commemorate his relatives. Schleswig-Holstein’s commissioner for political education called the decision a “deliberate attack” on remembrance culture. Munich also bars Stolpersteine on city-owned land and uses alternatives; some Jewish leaders there object that the alternatives allow victims’ names to be trampled.
