The memorial plaques, found in cities all over Europe, shall be installed in Lithuania by Gunter Demnig himself - the famous German architect and artist who first came up with the idea.

Remembering people's stories

Stolpersteine are single, decentralized memorials scattered across hundreds of cities in 18 European states. They commemorate the thousands of people who worked and created art in cities all over Europe but were seemingly rubbed clean off the map during the Holocaust.

"My project and my idea are meant for all of Europe, for all countries that were occupied by the German Army. Lithuania was one of the main sites of crimes against humanity," said Demnig.

Lithuania will be the very first Baltic state to have plaques installed in its streets to commemorate almost 20 Holocaust victims of Jewish or Romani descent. The stolpersteine in Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai and Panėvėžys shall tell passers-by of the story of the person who lived or worked there.

Giving meaning to tragedy

Birutė Sabatauskienė, the head of the Lithuanian Center for Human Rights, the organization responsible for bringing the stolpersteine to Lithuania, claims that these stones are a way of giving meaning to the collective memory of Lithuanians who perished during the Holocaust:

"We'll preserve the memory of people from all walks of life: an athlete, a politician, an artist, physicians, restaurant owners and those who were killed before they even managed to graduate high school - former neighbors, former members of our community."

The stolpersteine are small concrete cubes bearing a brass plaque, usually installed in the pavement of the street near where victims of the Holocaust lived, worked or studied.

Gunter Demnig will install the stolpersteine on 28-30 August.

Prepared with reference to manoteises.lt