The German city of Munich has decided to continue its ban on Stolpersteine, or the golden “stumbling stones” that memorialize victims of the Holocaust along cobblestone streets in 18 countries across Europe (as of August 2014). According to German publication The Local, a Munich city council once again rejected the proposal to install Stolpersteine: a series of small brass stones, emblazoned with the names and “last address of choice” of Holocaust victims.
The Stolpersteine project was started by German artist Gunter Demnig in 1996. His idea was that a cobblestone-like memorial would be placed outside a Holocaust victim’s last known place of residence. And Demnig’s memorials have caught on. According to the New York Observer, “there are close to 54,000 Stolpersteine in more than 1,200 cities and towns in Europe, including 500 other locations in Germany.”