From Reuters:
“German artist nearing 100,000 cobblestones to mark victims
of Nazis”
(Flowers are placed next to Stumbling stones (Stolpersteine)
of artist Gunter Demnig following a stone laying ceremony for a former teacher
and a former pupil of the Deutzer Gymnasium Schaurtestrasse in Cologne, Germany,
March 8, 2023.)
A German artist who is preparing to lay the 100,000th
cobblestone commemorating a person who was deported and killed by the Nazis has
no intention of giving up making the brass-capped blocks, saying demand is
higher than ever. By placing Stolpersteine ("stumble stones") outside
the victims' last known address, 75-year-old Gunter Demnig aims to draw
attention to the fate of individuals in the Holocaust. The project started
about three decades ago when Demnig laid the first stones in Berlin and
Cologne.
Nearly 100,000 cobblestones later, they can be found in 30
countries across Europe, from Finland to Italy, Hungary, Russia and Ukraine. "I
never dreamed of this," Demnig said, saying he had expected a few hundred
or maybe 1,000 stones. "I was naive enough to believe that it would have
to decrease at some point ... but it's the other way around: interest is
getting greater and greater." He expects to lay his 100,000th stone this
year.
In his workshop, Demnig embosses the name and date of birth
and circumstances of death by hand. He lays most of the stones, which can be
requested by anyone, himself, with the costs paid by donations and sponsorship
from private individuals as well as companies or institutions. "People ask
why I don't have it done in a factory? I say Auschwitz was a murder factory.
That's why it's important to me that the writing is hammered into the plaques
by hand," he said. Inspired by the Talmud - a compendium of Jewish thought
and commentary - which says a person is only forgotten when his or her name is
forgotten, the stones in front of the buildings revive the memory of the people
who lived there.
They commemorate all groups of the Nazis' victims, including
Jews, Sinti and Roma, political opponents, gay people and "antisocial
elements", or criminals.
They have become an integral part of cities across Germany,
especially Berlin, where locals and tourists stop to inspect the stones, which
shine on grey pavements and sometimes have flowers strewn across them. "Here
we have a mother who has been stigmatised for 'antisocial'. The child was
placed in a children's home. Both were murdered," said Demnig as prepares
to lay two stones outside the house in Cologne where they lived. While
determined to continue his work, Demnig is resigned to eventually delegating to
colleagues. "As long as my knees are still okay, I'll keep going," he
said.
^ I have seen this person and think it is a good way to remember
the Victims of the Nazis – especially in the locations they once lived at. ^
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