German town’s memorial stones for Nazi victims are stolen on Oct. 7 anniversary
10th October 2024
Ten stones that memorialized victims of the Holocaust in a German town were discovered to be missing on Monday, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
Residents in the eastern German town of Zeitz woke up to find that all of the town’s “stumbling stones,” called “Stolpersteine” in German, had been dislodged and stolen. The brass plaques had been lodged between cobblestones in front of the houses where Jews lived before the Nazis deported and killed them.
Stumbling stones like those in Zeitz have been placed across Europe and serve as a memorial to Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis, listing their names, birthdates and what is known of their fates — including their arrests, deportation to concentration camps and death.
In November 2023, weeks after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, four stumbling stones that marked the residences of Jews in Rome were defaced with black paint or burned.
“… and everybody hates the Jews….” — Tom Lehrer