Stolperstein

This is my first post to Steemit so hello. This is a recent image I took in the nearest city to where I now live in Halle, Germany. There's quite a history to the subject of the image please read on: The stolperstein art project was initiated by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, and is still ongoing. It aims at commemorating individual persons at exactly the last place of residency—or, sometimes, work—which was freely chosen by the person before he or she fell victim to Nazi terror, euthanasia, eugenics, was deported to a concentration or extermination camp, or escaped persecution by emigration or suicide. As of 31 January 2017, over 56,000 stolpersteine have been laid in 22 European countries, making the stolperstein project the world's largest decentralized memorial.. The majority of stolpersteine commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Others have been placed for Sinti and Romani people (then also called "gypsies"), homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, black people, members of the Christian opposition (both Protestants and Catholics), Freemasons, the Communist Party and the European anti-Nazi Resistance, military deserters, and the physically or mentally disabled.memorial. The name of the stolperstein project invokes multiple allusions: In Nazi Germany, an antisemitic saying, when accidentally stumbling over a protruding stone, was: "A Jew must be buried here". In a metaphorical sense, the German term Stolperstein can mean "potential problem". The term "to stumble across something", in German and English, can also mean "to find out (by chance)". Thus, the term provocatively invokes an antisemitic remark of the past, but at the same time intends to provoke thoughts about a serious issue. Stolpersteine are not placed prominently, but are rather discovered by chance, only recognizable when passing by at close distance. In contrast to central memorial places, which according to Demnig can be easily avoided or bypassed, stolpersteine represent a much deeper intrusion of memory into everyday life.. #Stolperstein #halle #germany #holocaust #remembrance #memorial