January 27, 2005
Stones of remembrance
Local woman honors artist for Jewish history award
by Eric Fingerhut, Staff Writer
Johanna Neumann has never met Gunter Demnig, but is well acquainted with his work.
The German artist's stolpersteine (stumbling stones, or blocks) are embedded in sidewalks throughout Germany. Neumann, who saw those stones last year on a trip to her native Hamburg, was so moved by these remembrances of Holocaust victims that she nominated him for an Obermayer Award.
The Obermayers honor non-Jewish Germans for preserving Jewish history in Germany. Demnig and four other recipients are scheduled to receive the awards today in Berlin on German Holocaust Memorial Day, which commemorates the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Demnig's stolpersteine are brass plaques placed in the sidewalk in front of the last known residences of Holocaust victims. Inscribed with the victim's name is the person's year of birth, date of deportation, place of deportation and date murdered, if known.
A Silver Spring resident, Neumann said she is "personally so impressed" that the idea for the stones originated with Cologne artist Demnig, who believed that large Holocaust memorials were not always effective in teaching Germans about the Holocaust.
"He saw these huge memorials" in major cities, but "unless you happen to be in the place of the monument, you don't know [the Holocaust happened] there," said Neumann.
So he decided to start making the stolpersteine. More than a decade later, there are 4,500 in 60 cities and towns throughout Germany.
Everyday Germans seem to be affected by the stones, according to Neumann, particularly those who live in the houses once occupied by Holocaust victims.
"It's shocking to them [that it happened] where they now live," she said, adding that it forces them to wonder how the country could have allowed the Holocaust to happen.
The only negative reaction to the stones has been in Munich and Leipzig, which so far have not permitted the stolpersteine to be embedded in their sidewalks.
Demnig originally paid for the stones himself, but he now has a volunteer assistant to raise the funds for them -- which cost 95 euros, or about $120, apiece -- from university students and community groups.
Neumann, 74, met the assistant, Peter Hess, on her trip last January to Germany, and told him about her father's stepmother. Her family never learned what happened to her. Hess told Neumann not to worry -- that he would find out all the details.
This week, Neumann was planning to visit that stone for the first time. And she will also finally meet the man who made it.