German artist Demnig places two pieces of the Holocaust memorial project "Stolpersteine" into the pavement...
German artist Gunter Demnig places two pieces of the Holocaust memorial project "Stolpersteine" (stumbling blocks) into the pavement outside a residential building in Berlin, April 25, 2014. In Berlin, the blocks, which commemorate victims of the Holocaust, have become part of the fabric of the city, their plates glinting amid the grey paving on residential streets and stopping both locals and tourists in their tracks. Demnig, in 1996 illegally laid the first 41 in the Berlin neighbourhood of Kreuzberg, having found the names in a local history book about the area's Jewish population. Three months later, the city granted Demnig permission to legally proceed with the project. Today there are 45,000 "Stolpersteine" in Germany and 16 other European countries. Berlin alone has 5,500 of them. The blocks read: "Here lived Dr. Erich Blumenthal, born 1883, deported 29.11.1942, murdered in Auschwitz. Here lived Helene Blumenthal, born 1888, deported 29.11.1942, murdered in Auschwitz." Picture taken April 25. REUTERS/Thomas Peter (GERMANY - Tags: CONFLICT SOCIETY)