Stralsund commemorates Jewish women: five new stumbling blocks unveiled!

Stralsund commemorates Jewish women: five new stumbling blocks unveiled!

Stralsund, Deutschland - On July 9, 2025, an emotional and moving memorial event took place in Stralsund, in which five new stumbling blocks were laid. These small concrete cubes labeled with names and life data are reminiscent of Jewish women who lost their lives during the National Socialist persecution. As NDR reported, opened STRALSIDS Alexander Badrow Event, to which numerous descendants of the victims from England and southern Germany had also come.

The new stumbling blocks are not only a memorial sign, but also part of a larger project that was launched by the artist Gunter Demnig in 1992. The aim is to commemorate the last freely chosen residents of the persecuted. There are now a total of 88 stumbling blocks in Stralsund, which were embedded in the sidewalk and invite you to pause and deal with the story. As wikipedia , stumbling blocks are the largest decentralized monument in the world and have been laid over 100,000 times by June 2023.

insight into the biographies of the victims

When laying the new stones, students from the Hansa-Gymnasium performed from the biographies of the five honored women. These include the Holocaust survivor Berta Wilton and Franziska Born, who was murdered in Auschwitz. Such events are not only a form of commemoration, they also raise awareness of the terrible events of the past.

The stumbling blocks in Stralsund were placed in four different locations and, such as Tagesspiegel , can be scanned with the help of the app "Stumper Stone Digital". This app offers users the opportunity to learn more about the fates of the victims and even light digital commemorative candles. A cleaning instruction for the stones is also integrated to support their preservation.

an act of remembering and learning

The installation of stumbling blocks is not undisputed everywhere. There are cities in Germany that speak against the laying of these memory symbols. Nevertheless, the majority of German cities are in favor of this form of commemoration, which is reminiscent of the persecution, displacement and murder of people in National Socialism.

in Bergisch Gladbach, but also in many places near our city, there is a lively discussion about the stumbling blocks. Historical research on the locations of the stones is often carried by students, teachers or local history associations. This shows that remembering and refreshing this important story is also a common effort.

The stumbling blocks in Stralsund and elsewhere are a place for memory and a call to learn from history. They stand there to be forgotten and to prevent such atrocities from ever repeating themselves.