Small Holocaust memorial stones, known as Stolpersteine or “stumbling blocks,” have been installed in Berlin for 30 years, marking the sites where victims of the Nazi regime lived before their state-sanctioned extermination. Artist Gunter Demnig has placed more than 11,000 such palm-sized brass plaques in Berlin and over 126,000 across Europe, serving as a stark reminder of the systematic violence against specific classes and groups.
Demnig installed the first plaque in the German capital three decades ago, following the first stone placed in 1992 in Cologne, a city in western Germany, now 34 years ago. These memorials confront the historical reality of a state apparatus deployed for mass murder and forced labor.
The Cost of Fascism
One such plaque, placed on a busy Berlin street, reads: “Johanna Berger, born in 1893, lived here; deported on Nov. 17, 1941, murdered on Nov. 25, 1941.” Relatives of Berger, including her grandnephew Michael Tischler, 72, attended the ceremony, reciting the Kaddish. Tischler noted that the Stolpersteine serve as a "substitute for the missing gravestones," providing a "provisional conclusion" to family histories shattered by state violence.
Demnig, 78, stated his "basic idea behind this was that wherever in Europe the German Wehrmacht, the SS, the Gestapo, and their local collaborators committed murders or carried out deportations, symbolic stones should be placed there." This statement directly implicates the state and its collaborators in the systematic violence.
The victims included not only European Jews, of whom approximately 6 million were killed, but also communists, gays, and Roma. The case of Michael Krein, a musician who died in Berlin in 1940 as a forced laborer under the Nazis, highlights the economic exploitation inherent in the regime's brutality. His wife Maria and daughter Dalila managed to escape to the U.S. and British-controlled Palestinian territory, respectively.
Before the Holocaust, Berlin housed Germany's largest Jewish community, with around 160,500 Jews living there in 1933, 93 years ago, when the Nazis seized power. By May 8, 1945, 81 years ago, when Nazi Germany surrendered, only about 7,000 remained, a consequence of forced emigration and extermination.
The Normalization of Reaction
The memorial stones have also fostered a grassroots movement, bringing together neighborhood initiatives, schools, and religious communities to research local history. This collective effort, involving old and young, uncovers the lives of those persecuted, ensuring the brass plaques are polished to maintain visibility. This organized resistance to historical erasure stands in contrast to the broader political landscape.
As Germany commemorates the Allied liberation from the Nazis 81 years ago, concerns are rising that the lessons of the Holocaust may be forgotten. The far right is "quickly gaining influence in Germany again," a development that Tischler worries about, despite his hope that the Stolpersteine "will still give some people pause for thought." This reveals the inadequacy of symbolic gestures in the face of resurgent reactionary forces.
Cas Mudde, in a separate analysis, cautioned against misinterpreting the recent Hungarian election results, where Péter Magyar's Tisza party ended Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. Mudde stated that Orbán's defeat was not a rejection of his far-right policies, particularly his anti-immigration stance, which is largely supported by Magyar. Instead, the defeat was attributed to the country’s "dire economic situation and the allegations of massive corruption under the Orbán regime." This highlights the material conditions driving political shifts, rather than ideological repudiation.
Mudde further noted that the European far right is not in decline, with such parties in government in the Czech Republic and Italy, and leading polls in Austria and France. He pointed to the "mainstreaming and normalisation of far-right actors and ideas" as continuing unabated. The European People’s party, for instance, is "openly collaborating with far-right parties to pass legislation in the European parliament" and "openly flirting with Meloni." This demonstrates how established liberal and centrist politics manage contradictions by accommodating and legitimizing the far-right, thereby extending the life of the existing system without addressing its foundations. Mudde also cited the EPP's adoption of "far-right scepticism towards the climate crisis and environmental protection" in the 2024 EU elections, now in its third year, as an effort to prevent dissatisfied farmers from shifting further right.