What is ‘Stolpersteine’?

About Stolpersteine:

• Stolperstein are small, brass memorials placed in the pavements of cities across Europe to commemorate victims of Nazi persecution. 
• The Stolpersteine are a project initiated by German artist Gunter Demnig since 1992.
• These small stones serve as a reminder of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust and the countless lives that were lost.
• “Stolperstein” is a German word meaning, literally, “stumbling stone,” or, metaphorically, “stumbling block.”
• The first Stolperstein was placed on 16 December 1992, a date which marked 50 years since an order was signed to begin the mass deportation of Jewish people and Roma from Germany.
• Each of the brass plaques embedded in pavements recalls the fate of a person who was persecuted by the Nazis, deported, murdered or driven to suicide.
• Unlike some other memorials that focus on specific persecuted groups, the Stolpersteine honour all victims of the Nazi regime, including Jewish, Sinti, Roma, disabled, dissident, and Afro-German and “asocial” citizens.
• The inscription on each stone begins “Here lived”, followed by the victim’s name, date of birth, and fate: internment, suicide, exile or, in the vast majority of cases, deportation and murder.
• Each Stolperstein is individually funded and can be sponsored by private individuals, schools or and organisations. 
• It is the largest decentralized Holocaust memorial in the world.

Q1) What is the Holocaust?

In the course of the Second World War, the Nazis murdered nearly six million European Jews. This genocide is called the Holocaust. Even before the Second World War, the word was sometimes used to describe the death of a large group of people, but since 1945, it has become almost synonymous with the murder of European Jews during the Second World War.

Source: ‘Stolpersteine’: Commemorating victims of Nazi persecution

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