Stumble Stones

If you look closely at the cobblestone sidewalks around the city, you will find many of these brass memorials. While they may be easy to miss, they preserve the stories of countless Holocaust victims, and act as potent, thoughtful reminders of the horrors that occurred. They are called Stolpersteine in German, or in English, stumble stones.

These stones are located in the ground in front of the last chosen residence of someone deported between the years of 1939 and 1944 as a result of Nazi ethnic cleansing policies. Almost every stone starts with “here lived” followed by the name of the person, their year of birth, their year of deportation, and if known, the name of the concentration camp and what happened to them.

The stones here say, “Here lived, Ilona Kleinova, born 1889, deported 1942 to Terezin, murdered October 14th, 1944 in Auschwitz” and “Here lived, Gideon Klein, born 1919, deported 1941 to Terezin, murdered 1945 in Auschwitz”.

Gideon Klein is particularly well remembered, as a Czech Jewish pianist, composer, and educator of music. Prior to invasion, Klein was a part of a vibrant, avant-garde music scene. When Klein was deported to the Terezin concentration camp, alongside several other composers at the camp, he held concerts in secret. His works from these years are still preserved, and include music for a string quartet, a string trio, a piano sonata, amongst many more.

As of April 2023, there are more than 90,000 stumble stones spread over more than 2000 cities/towns in 28 European countries. This constitutes the largest, decentralized war memorial in the world.

Keep walking straight until you see a plaza and statue – that will be our next stop.