Small Memorials |
Stolpersteine or Stumbling Stones In front of a house located at 149
Bismarckstrasse in Hamburg, Deutschland, there is a stone fixed permanently into
the concrete sidewalk. This stone carries five brass plates, engraved
with the names of a Jewish family who once lived there. The names of the Jews who once
lived there are Leonhard Falck, Hedwig Cibulski Falck, Hans Siegfried Falck,
Erich Falck, and Gerhard
Falck. Gershon (Gustav) Cibulski and Rosa Markus Cibulski lived on
Lindenallee. They were the parents of Hedwig and her sister and three brothers.
They too are now commemorated by a “Stolperstein,” as are thousands of
German, Dutch, Czech, Italian, and French
Jews. Even in Finland there are “Stumbling Stones,” as Austrian Jewish
refugees were handed over to the Germans by the Finnish government. Six Irish
Jews are now commemorated with “Stolpersteine.” These Irish born Jews had
moved to the European continent before the Second World War. There are
“Stolpersteine” in Luxembourg. In some German cities, politicians place
“Stolpersteine” on public property. Some stones were located on private
property. There are numerous German towns in which the citizens refused the
installation of “Stolpersteine,” as they pretend that they had not murdered
any Jews, despite the evidence that
their Jewish neighbors were murdered. There were three
million Jews in Poland in 1939 when the German army invaded that country.
Poland therefore became the country which saw more Jews murdered in
Polish-German murder camps than any other country. Indeed, there were a tiny
number of Christians in Poland who helped a few Jews escape the Nazi murder
machine. However, the vast majority of Polish Christians applauded the mass
murder of the Jewish population, while some Christians worked in the death camps
and helped kill Jews. Even after the German army had been defeated and no
Germans were still on Polish territory, Polish Christians murdered Jews who had
somehow survived the death camps. In Germany, there are some towns and cities whose newspapers support the installation of “Solpersteine” and who invite survivors as well as relatives of the victims to visit these communities. It was in 1939 when the German
artist Gunter Demnig first planted a Stolperstein
in front of the city hall of Cologne (Köln). Demnig thereby contradicted
the popular German excuse for mass murder of the German Jews. Several recent
public opinion polls show that the majority of Germans today claim that they
themselves were the victims of the Nazi regime since the allies and the Russians
bombed and destroyed German cities and towns in 1945. Many Germans claim that
Jews who complain about Auschwitz or seek compensation for the Jewish property
stolen during the Holocaust are greedy Jews wanting to make money. Evidently
most Germans find nothing wrong with stealing the property of murdered Jews. In 2008, Dörte Franke produced a
Documentary about “Stolpersteine.” The artist Gunter Demnig has become a true friend of the Jewish people and a man who should be included in the Jerusalem memorial to “Righteous Gentiles,” for he made it impossible for the German population to claim it knows nothing about the greatest crime in the history of man. Shalom u’vracha. Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including The American Jewish Community in the 20th and 21st Century (2021). |