Germany’s Heidenau rejects new Stolpersteine on streets — Jerusalem Post
The city council of Heidenau in the German state of Saxony voted to stop installing new Stolpersteine memorial stones on public streets and sidewalks. These brass plaques are dedicated to Jews and other people persecuted or killed by the Nazi regime.
As the Jerusalem Post reports, the decision was made in a secret ballot: 13 city council members supported it, six voted against it, and one abstained. The initiative was jointly introduced by representatives of the Christian Democratic Union, the Alternative for Germany party, and the Oberelbe Alliance for More Democracy association.
New applications will be rejected
Under the adopted resolution, applications to install new Stolpersteine on public streets and sidewalks will be rejected. Supporters of the decision propose concentrating memorials to victims of Nazism at a commemorative site at the city’s Northern Cemetery, where people will not walk over the plaques.
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The authors of the proposal argued that some residents, relatives of victims, and memorial initiatives no longer consider Stolpersteine an appropriate form of commemoration. One argument was that passers-by step on the names of murdered and persecuted people. At the same time, the city administration recommended that council members reject the initiative, stating that remembrance must remain “visible and present in public space.”
There are already five stones in the city
Five Stolpersteine have already been installed in Heidenau, located near Dresden. The first stone was installed near the town hall in 2021 in memory of the city’s first mayor, Paul Gräger. After the Nazis came to power, he was removed from office, arrested in June 1933, and sent to the Hohnstein concentration camp, where he was brutally mistreated. Shortly after his release, on August 27, 1933, Gräger took his own life.
The other stones are dedicated to members of the Jewish Rainer family and were installed at the initiative of schoolchildren. Activists also sought to commemorate Martha and Fritz Goldstein. The organizers submitted an application to the municipality as early as February 2025, offering to finance the stones and the costs of their installation. The International Auschwitz Committee criticized the council’s decision, calling it an attempt to once again push victims of Nazism out of the city center.
