Stumble-stones

There are thousands of these little 10 cm x 10 cm brass plaques all over Berlin. Embedded in the cobblestones next to the house-fronts, they mark the last place of residence of Jews and other deportees, and they all follow roughly the same format.

The one on the left says, “Here lived Karl Holzfäller,  born 1884, arrested 1943, Brandenburg Prison, executed January 29, 1945.” And on the right: “Here lived Charlotte Bloch, nee Riess, born 1893, deported January 10, 1944, Theresienstadt, murdered in Auschwitz.”

Of the many signs of repentance and remembrance in this city, these Stolpersteine are the best, I think, because they are so simple and yet so powerful, with their egalitarian, repetitive, ubiquitous presence.