There has been outrage in Germany after the small eastern town of Heidenau voted to ban the installation of new Stolpersteine — the brass "stumbling block" memorials that mark the last known homes or workplaces of victims of Nazi persecution.
On Thursday, Heidenau's city council, in Saxony near Dresden, backed a motion jointly proposed by the local branches of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The council voted to stop further plaques being installed in public streets and instead concentrate future commemoration at a memorial site at the town's northern cemetery.
The motion argued that many citizens regarded the cobblestone-shaped memorials as inappropriate because they are embedded in the ground and can be stepped on. Supporters said plaques would be placed at the cemetery to make it "impossible to step directly onto the memorial elements."
The decision has fuelled a fierce national debate. Germany's Education Minister Karin Prien called the ban a "scandal", telling Bild that banishing the memorials from public spaces to the cemetery "prioritises death over life and renders Jewish people invisible once again" — while also saying her own CDU party in Saxony bore responsibility for the decision.
Stolpersteine — German for "stumbling stones" — are the work of artist Gunter Demnig, who began the project in the 1990s. The small 10-centimetre brass cubes are typically embedded in pavements outside the former homes of the victims and carry their name, date of deportation and place of death. Around 116,000 plaques have now been installed across 31 countries, the vast majority in Germany.
Demnig himself rejected the Heidenau motion, saying the blocks must remain visible in the specific places where people used to live or work, and that they help bring history to life for young people.
Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and president of a Jewish regional association in Bavaria, said she was "appalled that a democratic party has chosen to support such a transparent manoeuvre by the extremist AfD", and described the council's decision as the "completely wrong path."
The move has also reignited debate over the "Brandmauer" — the informal firewall by which Germany's mainstream parties rule out formal cooperation with the AfD. The approval of the motion ran counter to a recommendation from Heidenau's own city administration, which had said a blanket ban was "neither necessary for the creation of a central memorial nor justified by the proposal itself."
Sources:
- Outrage as East German town bans Holocaust 'stumbling blocks' (CNN, via LA Post)
- East German town bans future Holocaust memorial plaques (Reuters, via LA Post)
On Thursday, Heidenau's city council, in Saxony near Dresden, backed a motion jointly proposed by the local branches of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The council voted to stop further plaques being installed in public streets and instead concentrate future commemoration at a memorial site at the town's northern cemetery.
The motion argued that many citizens regarded the cobblestone-shaped memorials as inappropriate because they are embedded in the ground and can be stepped on. Supporters said plaques would be placed at the cemetery to make it "impossible to step directly onto the memorial elements."
The decision has fuelled a fierce national debate. Germany's Education Minister Karin Prien called the ban a "scandal", telling Bild that banishing the memorials from public spaces to the cemetery "prioritises death over life and renders Jewish people invisible once again" — while also saying her own CDU party in Saxony bore responsibility for the decision.
Stolpersteine — German for "stumbling stones" — are the work of artist Gunter Demnig, who began the project in the 1990s. The small 10-centimetre brass cubes are typically embedded in pavements outside the former homes of the victims and carry their name, date of deportation and place of death. Around 116,000 plaques have now been installed across 31 countries, the vast majority in Germany.
Demnig himself rejected the Heidenau motion, saying the blocks must remain visible in the specific places where people used to live or work, and that they help bring history to life for young people.
Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and president of a Jewish regional association in Bavaria, said she was "appalled that a democratic party has chosen to support such a transparent manoeuvre by the extremist AfD", and described the council's decision as the "completely wrong path."
The move has also reignited debate over the "Brandmauer" — the informal firewall by which Germany's mainstream parties rule out formal cooperation with the AfD. The approval of the motion ran counter to a recommendation from Heidenau's own city administration, which had said a blanket ban was "neither necessary for the creation of a central memorial nor justified by the proposal itself."
Sources:
- Outrage as East German town bans Holocaust 'stumbling blocks' (CNN, via LA Post)
- East German town bans future Holocaust memorial plaques (Reuters, via LA Post)
