Heidenau’s council voted Thursday to bar new Stolpersteine plaques at Holocaust victims’ last known homes or workplaces. The far-right AfD and center-right CDU proposed holding future Holocaust commemorations at the town cemetery’s memorial site.
Motion sponsors argued that pedestrians could walk over or step on victims’ names. German artist Gunter Demnig began the Stolpersteine project in the 1990s; its 10-centimeter brass plaques list details such as a person’s name, deportation date and place of death. About 116,000 have been installed in 31 countries, mostly in Germany.
Demnig opposed the vote, saying the plaques should be at the specific places where people lived or worked and help young people connect with history. Green Party co-leader Felix Banaszak called the decision a scandal. Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch said public, decentralized commemoration mattered, although she said she was not a fan of the Stolpersteine concept. The CDU’s support for the AfD motion drew criticism amid pressure on mainstream parties’ informal firewall against cooperation with the AfD.
