Outrage as East German town bans Holocaust ‘stumbling blocks’

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There has been outrage after a small town in eastern Germany banned the installation of new Holocaust memorial plaques that mark the last known residence or workplace of Jews and other victims of the genocide.

‘Stolpersteine,’ meaning ‘stumbling blocks’, are found across Germany, as well as in other European countries, and are intended as a daily reminder of Nazi atrocities.

The motion was proposed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who argued that passersby are “walking over or even stepping onto the names of the victims.” On Thursday, the city council of Heidenau, a town near Dresden in Saxony, backed the motion.

The parties’ local branches instead proposed that future Holocaust commemorations should be kept at the town’s memorial site at its northern cemetery, German media report. CNN has approached both parties for comment.

The move has sparked backlash, with opponents arguing that part of the purpose of the memorials is their subtle intrusion into everyday life.

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The small 10cm brass cubes, often installed in sidewalks outside residential homes, are the work of German artist Gunter Demnig who initiated the project in the 1990s.

They all carry similar information, such as the individual’s name, date of deportation, and place of death. To date 116,000 plaques have been installed across 31 countries, the vast majority are in Germany.

Demnig himself has rejected the recent motion in Heidenau. Speaking to German media, he said that the blocks must be visible in the specific locations where people used to live or work, and that they help bring history to life for young people.

He said he was not surprised by the ban, given the AfD’s recent electoral successes, and said of the CDU that the party “should perhaps drop its ‘C’. Because they’ve clearly left Christianity behind.”

Felix Banaszak, co-leader of Germany’s Green Party, described it as a scandal and said that the reasoning that people were stepping on the blocks was “absurd.”

“They bring the names and fates of the victims into our everyday lives and prompt us to pause for a moment,” he told German media.

Charlotte Knobloch, the president of a Jewish association in Bavaria and a Holocaust survivor herself, described the town council’s decision as the “completely wrong path.”

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Speaking to Germany’s Funke Media Group, she said that while she herself was not a friend of the ‘Stolpersteine’ concept, “decentralized commemoration that is not banished from public spaces” is key for the country’s culture of remembrance.

The AfD has long challenged Germany’s forms of commemoration of the atrocities committed under Adolf Hitler.

In Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD recently sealed it best-ever win in state elections, a prominent AfD official described their vision to overhaul the state’s school history lessons as “more Bismark – less Hitler.”

On a federal level, the party was designated as a far-right extremist organization by German domestic intelligence, although that designation is currently under review. Individuals within the party have also been accused of being extremists.

Aside from the fact that a far-right policy has been approved at the local level in Germany, the move lays bare a growing issue in German politics; adherence to the ‘Brandmauer,’ or firewall, an informal position for mainstream parties that sees them rule out cooperation with the AfD.

This firewall, which is designed to keep the far right out of political decision making and stifle their growth, is under serious pressure. The CDU’s willingness to work together with the AfD to pass this motion has sparked criticism of the CDU leadership and comes at a time when the Chancellor and CDU leader Friedrich Merz is already facing a crisis over poor performances in recent regional elections.

The International Auschwitz Committee slammed the CDU’s support of the motion as scandalous, according to Deutsche Welle.

“This is a transparent and despicable attempt to drive Nazi victims in Heidenau out of the city once again and dispose of them where, according to the AfD, their memory has belonged a long time ago — at the cemetery,” the committee’s executive vice president said.

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德国东部一个小镇禁止安装新的大屠杀纪念牌匾，这些牌匾标志着犹太人和其他种族灭绝受害者的最后已知居住地或工作场所，此举引发了众怒。

“绊脚石”（Stolpersteine）在德国以及其他欧洲国家随处可见，旨在每日提醒人们纳粹的暴行。

这项动议由极右翼的德国另类选择党（AfD）和中间偏右的基督教民主联盟（CDU）提出，他们认为路人“正在践踏甚至踩踏遇难者的名字”。周四，萨克森州德累斯顿附近的海德瑙市议会支持了这项动议。

据德国媒体报道，两党地方分支机构提议，未来的大屠杀纪念活动应在该镇北部公墓的纪念馆举行。CNN已联系两党寻求置评。

此举引发了强烈反对，反对者认为，纪念碑的部分目的在于它们对日常生活的微妙干预。

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这些通常安装在居民住宅外人行道上的 10 厘米小黄铜立方体，是德国艺术家 Gunter Demnig 在 20 世纪 90 年代发起的项目。

这些纪念牌上都刻有类似的信息，例如姓名、遣返日期和死亡地点。迄今为止，已在31个国家安装了11.6万块纪念牌，其中绝大多数位于德国。

德姆尼格本人已否决了海德瑙最近提出的动议。他在接受德国媒体采访时表示，这些石块必须放置在人们曾经居住或工作过的特定地点，这样才能帮助年轻人了解历史。

他表示，鉴于德国选择党（AfD）近期的选举胜利，他对这项禁令并不感到意外。他还谈到基民盟（CDU）时说，该党“或许应该去掉党名中的‘C’，因为他们显然已经背离了基督教。”

德国绿党联合领导人费利克斯·巴纳扎克称此事为丑闻，并表示人们踩在砖块上的理由“荒谬至极”。

“他们将受害者的姓名和命运带入我们的日常生活，促使我们停下来思考片刻，”他告诉德国媒体。

巴伐利亚一家犹太协会的主席夏洛特·克诺布洛赫（Charlotte Knobloch）本人也是一名大屠杀幸存者，她将镇议会的决定描述为“完全错误的道路”。

莉西·尼斯纳/路透社

她在接受德国冯克传媒集团采访时表示，虽然她本人并不支持“绊脚石”的概念，但“分散的、不被禁止在公共空间进行的纪念活动”对于国家的纪念文化至关重要。

德国选择党长期以来一直对德国纪念阿道夫·希特勒暴行的形式提出质疑。

在萨克森-安哈尔特州，德国选择党最近在州选举中取得了有史以来最好的胜利。一位德国选择党的知名官员将他们改革该州学校历史课程的愿景描述为“多讲俾斯麦，少讲希特勒”。

在联邦层面，该党被德国国内情报机构认定为极右翼极端组织，但这一认定目前正在审查中。该党内部也有个人被指控为极端分子。

除了德国地方层面批准了一项极右翼政策之外，此举还暴露了德国政治中一个日益严重的问题：坚持“防火墙”（Brandmauer），这是主流政党的一种非正式立场，即排除与德国选择党（AfD）合作。

这条旨在将极右势力排除在政治决策之外并遏制其发展的防火墙正面临严峻挑战。基民盟愿意与德国选择党合作通过这项动议，引发了对基民盟领导层的批评。而此时，总理兼基民盟主席弗里德里希·默茨已因近期地方选举中表现不佳而面临危机。

据德国之声报道，国际奥斯维辛委员会猛烈抨击基民盟支持该动议，称其令人愤慨。

“这是一次明目张胆、卑鄙无耻的企图，目的是再次将海德瑙的纳粹受害者驱逐出城，并将他们丢弃在德国选择党认为他们记忆早已应该安息的地方——墓地，”该委员会执行副主席说道。