Giant Holocaust project marks 100,000-plaque milestone
The world's largest grassroots Holocaust memorial project has laid its 100,000th personalised plaque, as the US ambassador to Germany honoured her family members who fled the Nazis with an emotional ceremony.
When sculptor Gunter Demnig started the Stolpersteine, or "stumbling blocks", initiative three decades ago, he had little idea it would spread to more than 20 countries in Europe and crystallise many of the fraught contemporary questions around historical remembrance.
Each block, or Stolperstein, the size of a cobblestone, bears a stark engraving with the name of a victim, birthdate, date of deportation or escape and, if known, date and place of death.
The shiny brass of the plaques, embedded in the pavement in front of the victim's last home, catches the light, encouraging passers-by to stop and read the small inscriptions.
more...
