Articles

Holocaust memorial plaques appear in the streets of Prague

A new memorial to Holocaust victims can be found nestled between the cobblestones in Prague's historic streets. These are the Stolpersteines, meaning "Stumbling Blocks," created by the artist Gunter Demnig as part of a European-wide project to remember those deported and killed in the Holocaust.

The 10 centimeter wide brass plaques are engraved with names of Holocaust victims and placed in front of their former homes. They serve as a casual, yet powerful, reminder of those who were deported and murdered simply because of their religion, ethnicity, politics, or sexual orientation. The artist was inspired by a line from the Talmud that read "One is not truly dead until one’s name is forgotten.”

Prague will have a total of 81 Stolpersteines placed into the street over the course of the summer. Each plague begins with the words “Here lived...” and provides the date of the victims’ deportation and, if known, the date and place of death.

For more information on the Stolpersteines and the artist Demnig, please view the very informative article here.