Stolpersteine
stories through generations
The STOLPERSTEINE (stumbling stones) memorial project is a remembrance project by German artist Gunter Demnig that has gained international attention since founded in 1996. It is the most compelling, personal, moving memorial one could imagine as it names the individuals and cites their date of birth, date of deportation, date of death or destiny. Located at the entrances of buildings that were the last freely chosen home of the individual named on the STOLPERSTEINE, the observer is literally on the threshold of the lives of these people led until they were torn out.
To emphasize the personal connection and the incredible pervasiveness of the project, STOLPERSTEINE: STORIES THROUGH GENERATIONS brings the stories of several Canadian families alive through the strong narrative of audio interviews and private family images. The goal is to preserve the memory and the deeply moving personal stories and insights for future generations as well as to act as an access point for further education and discussion. The oral histories provide glimpses that cannot be obtained from documents or written records. They supplement the cultural and historical archives with intimate personal memories and documents and reclaim a lost world through the power of stories.
StolpersteinE Exhibition In Canada
In the spring and summer of 2020, the German Consulate Toronto brought the exhibition Stolpersteine to Toronto for the commemoration event on Liberation75. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, unfortunately the exhibition was not accessible to the public during its stay in Toronto, and only briefly during its short visit to the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada in Winnipeg in the fall. It returned to Germany never open to the Canadian public in December 2020. This 3-min documentary was produced by the German Consulate Toronto to provide a public glimpse of the expressive exhibit.
Gunter Demnig
German artist Gunter Demnig remembers the victims of National Socialism by installing commemorative brass plaques in the pavement in front of their last address of choice. There are now STOLPERSTEINE in at least 1200 places in Germany, as well as in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Gunter Demnig cites the Talmud saying that "a person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten". The STOLPERSTEINE in front of the buildings bring back to memory the people who once lived here. Almost every “stone” begins with HERE LIVED… One “stone”. One name. One person. More than 70,000 STOLPERSTEINE have been placed all over Europe so far.
To learn more about the artist and the STOLPERSTEINE project, please visit the link below.
