Heidenau city council bans Stolpersteine memorials in public spaces

The city council of Heidenau, Germany, has passed a motion to ban the installation of ‘Stolpersteine’ (stumbling stones) in public sidewalks. These small brass memorial plaques, which commemorate victims of the Holocaust at their last known places of residence, will instead be relocated to the town’s North Cemetery.

The decision was supported by a joint motion from the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Proponents of the ban argued that the stones are disrespectful because pedestrians walk on them, whereas critics view the move as an attempt to remove visible Holocaust remembrance from daily public life.

The decision has drawn sharp condemnation from political figures and Jewish community leaders. German Education Minister Karin Prien described the move as ‘scandalous,’ stating that moving the memorials to a cemetery ‘makes Jewish people invisible again.’ Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and chair of the Jewish community in Munich, expressed shock at the support shown to the AfD by the CDU on this issue.