As I have mentioned in other reviews when I have come across these stumbling stones, it is always jarring. I'm on vacation and enjoying my wonderful life. *record scratch* And here is this - this is the last place a fellow human stepped in freedom before they were deported to a concentration camp by the Nazis and murdered. It's quite shocking. This is my sixth, second in Germany. The term "Stolpersteine" translates to stumbling stone though they are installed flush to the ground so you don't actually stumble. It is a commemorative project initiated by artist Gunter Deming and there are more than 70,000 of these stones across 1200 cities in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine. More than just Jews, they honor all victims of the National Socialist regime, including Sinti, Roma, disabled, dissident, and Afro-German and "asocial" citizens. One per victim, each stone begins with "Here lived", followed by the victim's name, date of birth, and fate: internment, suicide, exile or, in the vast majority of cases, deportation and murder. This stone remembers Emma Baier. It reads, "Here lived Emma Baier. Born 1877. Admitted 1929 Heilanstalt Emmendingen [I believe this may have been a psychiatric hospital or nursing home]. Deported July 26 1940. Grafeneck Ermordet July 26, 1940. Aktion T4" "A person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten." [Review 21158 overall - 235 in Germany - 121 of 2024.] read more

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