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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/28\/world\/europe\/germany-stumbling-stones-holocaust-memorial-ban.html?emc=edit_nn_20260929&nl=the-morning&segment_id=227235",
    "parsed_content": "AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTGerman Town Votes to Stop Adding Memorials Outside Homes of Slain JewsCouncilors in an eastern German town voted to stop installing memorial plaques outside homes of Holocaust victims, saying they would instead build a memorial at a cemetery.Listen \u00b7 6:03 min Share full articleThe artist Gunter Demnig placing plaques called \u201cStolpersteine,\u201d or \u201cstumbling stones,\u201d on a street in Berlin in May.Credit...Markus Schreiber\/Associated PressBy Christopher F. SchuetzeReporting from BerlinSept. 28, 2026Leer en espa\u00f1olSee more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra m\u00e1s de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de b\u00fasqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google To honor people murdered by the Nazi regime, Europeans across the continent have installed thousands of little memorial plaques in the sidewalks outside the homes of the victims, most of them Jews.Since the first plaques were installed more than three decades ago, more than 116,000 such \u201cstumbling stones,\u201d as the brass tiles are known, have been unveiled across 31 countries. In Germany, the stones have long been part of a national effort to acknowledge and atone for the country\u2019s Nazi history.Now, a coalition of far-right and conservative city councilors in eastern Germany have broken with that effort by voting to stop the project \u2014 at least in their town of Heidenau, population 16,500.Last week, the City Council of Heidenau voted 13-6 in a secret ballot to ban the installation of seven new stumbling stones, or \u201cStolpersteine\u201d in German. The motion was proposed jointly by councilors from the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD; the center-right Christian Democratic Union, or C.D.U., the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz; and a small alliance of local independents.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe councilors said they were barring the plaques\u2019 installation because people might step on them, potentially disrespecting the victims\u2019 memory. They proposed installing a general memorial instead at the local cemetery.Their decision has drawn sharp criticism across Germany, including from the C.D.U.\u2019s national leadership, which has long rejected working with the AfD. Memorializing the Holocaust is one of the fundamental tenets of the modern German state and to many Germans, the tiles\u2019 location amid the bustle of everyday life is considered crucial to their impact \u2014 precisely because it is so easy to step on them.Critics of the council\u2019s decision say that the councilors had a hidden motive, given that the AfD openly opposes national efforts to come to terms with Germany\u2019s wartime guilt. The AfD\u2019s national leadership has not commented on the councilors\u2019 decision, but it has long portrayed Germany\u2019s culture of remembrance as a \u201ccult of guilt\u201d \u2014 and has campaigned on that issue. Its leaders have also dismissed the significance of the Holocaust and used Nazi slogans.Germany\u2019s domestic intelligence agency has classified the group as \u201csuspected extremist,\u201d an accusation it denies as politically motivated.ImageRelatives holding a \u201cstumbling stone\u201d for Holocaust victim Johanna Berger in Berlin in May.Credit...Markus Schreiber\/Associated PressThe furor comes as the AfD, once a fringe party, is topping national polls. It also follows the party\u2019s victory in early September in a regional election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where it is now trying to form a ruling coalition and become the first far-right party to rule a German state since the Nazi era.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTKarin Prien, Germany\u2019s education minister and a C.D.U. member, called the vote scandalous.Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to Germany, said he felt shame over the vote. \u201cThose who erase the victims of the past erase the past itself,\u201d he said in a social media post.Roughly 4 inches by 4 inches, the brass plaques are typically inscribed with the name of a victim, as well as the years in which they were born and deported. Each \u201cStolperstein\u201d is attached to a tiny cement cube, which is in turn dug into the sidewalk in front of the victim\u2019s last known residence.According to the artist who conceived of the project, Gunter Demnig, the goal is to help people understand the tragedy of each individual death.\u201cTo think about six million victims is abstract, but to think about a murdered family is concrete,\u201d Mr. Demnig, who still oversees the plaques\u2019 production, told Smithsonian Magazine in 2007.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAnyone can apply to lay such a stone. In Germany, where the bulk of them are installed, it is often school classes, youth groups or nongovernmental organizations who raise money to fund the stones and hold a short memorial ceremony to mark their installation.Every year on Jan. 27, Holocaust Memorial Day, people meet to polish the stones and to light candles.In a statement, the Heidenau councilors said their intention was to \u201cprevent people from stepping directly on elements of the memorial.\u201dThat argument was dismissed by Anne Nitschke, the activist who had applied to install the stumbling stones in Heidenau. \u201cI see this as an attempt to prevent individual memorials from appearing in the public landscape,\u201d Ms. Nitschke told a public TV station. \u201cIt\u2019s simply a way to banish any kind of memorial to the outskirts of the city,\u201d she added.Christoph Huebner, vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, an international group that works to preserve the memory of Holocaust victims, criticized the move in a statement. \u201cThis is a transparent and despicable attempt to once again drive the victims of the Nazis in Heidenau out of the city and dispose of them where, in the AfD\u2019s view, remembrance has long belonged: in the cemetery,\u201d he wrote.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe town\u2019s mayor, Conny Oertel, an independent, recommended that colleagues vote against the decision, yet still subsequently defended those who voted for it.\u201cI can say one thing: the entire City Council \u2014 truly everyone \u2014 is in favor of continuing to commemorate the nation\u2019s victims,\u201d she told a public broadcaster. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of how to do it.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-28T16:46:58+00:00",
    "author_name": "Christopher F. Schuetze",
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    "ai_headline": "German Town Votes to Stop Adding Memorials Outside Homes of Slain Jews",
    "ai_simplified_title": "German Town Halts Holocaust Memorial Plaques",
    "ai_excerpt": "A town in eastern Germany has voted to stop installing \"stumbling stones\" memorial plaques for Holocaust victims, opting instead for a general memorial at a cemetery. This decision, driven by a coalition of far-right and conservative councilors, has sparked widespread criticism across Germany.",
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