Stolpersteine, translated in English as "stumbling stones," are easy to overlook. People walk over them on sidewalks and walkways every day. Some cities have one or two, others a dozen, others hundreds. And they are all over Germany today, and even in places as far as Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Sweden and eastern parts of Russia.
Stolpersteine are little brass-plated stones measuring 10x10 cm which commemorate the lives of people who fell victim to the National Socialists (Nazis) between 1933 and 1945. A vast majority of the stones remember the lives of Jews (such as Herr and Frau Weiler from Konstanz), but many others commemorate the lives of Romani, homosexuals, members of political opposition, religious dissenters and many others.
Begun as an initiative by German artist Gunter Demning in 1997 and having since become a global phenomenon, 225 "stumbling stones" have been laid into the cement and asphalt areas in Konstanz, Germany, alone since 2018. Most of those remembered here were Jewish, but others were chronically ill, deserters of the war or Catholic objectors.
