As promised, Demnig traveled from Cologne to North Drenthe to construct the eighteen handmade Stolpersteine (each for a victim). They are located in front of five houses, owned during the war by Jews who were later deported. “They are stones with a copper plate with the name of the person, date of birth, date of death and place of death,” explains Sietsma, who further emphasizes the importance of the stones.
“The name stumbling stones is not just there, they just lie on the sidewalk and you can trip over them.” And that has a reason, continues Sietsma. “The intention is that you are reminded of the war. Of the people who fell victim to Nazism, the persecution mania of the German occupiers. And remembering, that only works if you know what happened,” he concludes.
The location where the hundred thousandth in Europe was laid, Nuremberg, has a lot of symbolic value, according to former NIOD director Van Vree. “Nuremberg is linked to those Nazi persecutions in three ways. This was where the Nazis held their party days, with Hitler addressing large crowds.”
Furthermore, the Nuremberg Race Laws provided a legal basis for the Nazis to systematically persecute Jews and Gypsies. And in the years after the war, the main perpetrators were convicted at the Nuremberg Tribunal.