The town council of Heidenau, located near Dresden, has voted to prohibit the installation of "Stolpersteine"—small brass plaques embedded in sidewalks to commemorate victims of the Nazi regime. The motion, supported by members of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), mandates that future memorials be relocated to the city’s Nordfriedhof cemetery. Proponents of the move argued that placing these markers in public streets is inappropriate and that moving them to a cemetery would prevent pedestrians from walking directly over the plaques.
The decision has triggered significant condemnation. Karin Prien, the German Education Minister and a member of the CDU, described the ban as a "scandal." She argued that relocating these markers to a cemetery effectively renders Jewish history invisible in public life. Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Jewish Community in Munich and a Holocaust survivor, expressed her dismay, stating that removing these memorials from the urban landscape is "completely the wrong approach." She further criticized the involvement of mainstream political parties in supporting the initiative, which she characterized as a maneuver by extremists.
The Stolperstein project, initiated by artist Gunter Demnig in the 1990s, has become a widespread form of remembrance across Europe, with plaques typically placed outside the former homes or workplaces of victims. Demnig noted that the recent political climate, marked by electoral gains for the AfD, made such challenges to the memorial project foreseeable. While the AfD rejects the classification, the party's branch in Saxony has been designated as extreme-right by German domestic intelligence.
Source: BBC News
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