Category:Stolpersteine

English: Stolperstein is the German word for "stumbling block", "obstacle", or "something in the way". The artist Gunter Demnig has given this word a new meaning, that of a small, cobblestone-sized memorial for a single victim of Nazism set in the pavement before the building in which this person lived. These memorials commemorate individuals -- those who died as well as survivors -- who were deported by the Nazis to prisons, euthanasia "clinics", concentration camps, and extermination camps, as well as individuals who responded to persecution by emigrating or committing suicide. They include Jews, Sinti and Romani people (also called gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Black people, Christians (both Protestants and Catholics) opposed to the Nazis, members of the Communist Party and the Resistance, military deserters, and the physically and mentally disabled. The list of cities that have Stolpersteine now extends to several countries and hundreds of cities and towns.