THE BACKGROUND STORY
This is from a trip 15 years ago but ever so relevant today. As an insomniac, I leave the radio on all night. Mainly, because, DW (Deutsche Wella) had wonderful segments. They were located in Koln but now IN Bonn. Early one morning, a segment talked about a man with a mission. Gunter Demnig, had created a way to memorialize those who had perished during WW II. I phoned my contacts at German Tourism in Toronto who thought it was a great idea for me to interview this passionate artist/sculpture. Soon I was on my way to Koln (Cologne), Germany.

AND THEN IN KOLN
On a cold, dull winter Sunday morning in Cologne, when everything is closed as tight as a clam, the streets devoid of people, it was with luck that a young man who could speak English, read the sign above the unanswered bell I had been ringing for 1/2 hour. Unanswered because, as the note stated in German, the entrance was a few doors away in a garage. I had come to this Saxon city and I wasn't going to allow the elements (and it was freezing) to stop me from meeting and interviewing sculptor, Gunter Demnig.
If the name didn't mean anything then, it sure does now. He'll be known for his creative endeavours in establishing works of art commemorating Jewish people who were 'lost' under German fascism.

MEETING GUNTER AND SEEING HIS HOMAGE TO THE HOLOCAUST
The garage door opened and there to greet me was Gunter Demnig, wearing his signature brown suede wide brimmed hat, earring stud, red scarf around his neck, a much needed vest for warmth. Garages are seldom heated and I, too, kept my coat on during the entire time. The huge space isn't just Demnig's atelier, (this may have changed in the time since the interview) but also his living quarter. It's here that he slept, worked and crushed cement, engraved and brass covered bricks.

THE UGLY PAST
"Neighbours who lived happily alongside each other until 1933, suddenly disappeared. Their homes and apartments were emptied, furniture taken away and no one knew anything?" The fact that there were never any questions of where these people had gone and why, still haunts Demnig, a non Jewish, Berlin born, man now in his 60s.

HENCE THE STORY
A self-confessed controversial political artist, he was arrested (albeit for a short time), during the Vietnam war, for creating a scandal by exhibiting a painting of an American flag. In lieu of the stars, he had placed skull and cross bones. Stolpersteine, or Stumbling Blocks, is his homage to the Holocaust, and has had a much more major impact in Germany and other European countries.

HE MADE HIS DREAM COME TRUE
It was in 1996 when Gunter Demnig had an inspiration, something that would be creative and memorialize the fate of 6 million Jews. "I wanted to bring back the names of the Jews who lived, loved, had children and a normal life, who lived in these houses," he says, tears suddenly streaming down his face, still so sensitive about the 'final solution'..

STUMBLING BLOCKS
Stumbling Blocks or Stolpersteine, marks the remembrance in the form of art in a public space. "Stolpersteine," he explains,"is to stumble in your brain about this message and the stones." The first he had ever heard about the Holocaust was from his grandmother who told him of the horrendous dark era in Germany

WHAT ARE THEY?
Stolpersteine (Stumbling Blocks) are brass plates on which he hand stamps, 'Here Lived' then inscriptions of the names of victims, their birth date and if known, the date of their death. Afterwards, he folds the corners of the brass to fit over the compressed concrete blocks which he prepares himself with a strange looking hand-manipulated machine. The finished block is set in the pavement in front of the houses where these Jewish people once lived. For each installation he receives Euro 95, a meagre sum for these memorials. At the time, there were about 4000 stumbling blocks. Now, 15-16 years later there are over 53,000 throughout various European countries. And I couldn't get this story published in any Canadian  national publications when I submitted the article. Now 16 years later, it appears on the front page of New York Times, Sunday Travel Section. It was accepted by the Canadian Jewish News.

THERE WERE NAY SAYERS, OF COURSE.
Cologne said they would allow him to continue with the understanding that they would not be liable for any costs. The first installation created an outcry from the residents of buildings since he had planned to place plaques on the entrance walls. Reasons were mainly because these homes may have been taken by the now-owners who perhaps never paid the rightful owners. So, Demnig's next and lasting idea was to place these in the street in front of the buildings.

AND WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
Then a few cities and towns accepted the stones, Siegburg, Munster, Bruhl, Bunde, Lahr, Fritzlar, Lubben, Neuruppin and larger cities –Dusseldorf, Freiburg, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Berlin.
After speaking with Gunter at length, he says these weren't to garner attention but to state his feelings "to keep the memory of the victims alive throughout Europe. "How can you walk on the graves of people," he was asked. "This way you can never forget and every time someone walks on the brass plates, it only makes them shine more. It's a small monument, but it will be big when you see thousands of them."
Gunter Demnig smiles for the first time since we met.

STOLPERSTEINE – STUMBLING BLOCKS, once known, never forgotten.