Ten brass plaques lodged between cobblestones in memory of Jews deported and killed by the Nazis were stolen on the anniversary of October 7 in the German town of Zeitz.
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’s October 7 attacks on Israel, reports The Times of Israel.
The “stumbling stones,” called “Stolpersteine” in German, were brass plaques lodged between cobblestones in front of the houses where Jews lived before the Nazis deported and killed them.
Similarly to those dislodged and stolen in Zeitz are 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.
The city of Zeitz and the Stolpersteine for Zeitz initiative have organized a fundraising campaign to replace the stumbling stolen stumbling stones, which were laid in various locations across the city, which has just over 30,000 residents. They also planned a memorial march for October 19 that will pass all the locations of the stolen stones.
Götz Ulrich county governor condemned the crime in a statement on X, calling it “unforgivable and never excusable”. “Whoever did this also wants to tear the #Holocaust out of our #CultureofRemembrance,” he wrote.
Zeitz Mayor Kathrin Weber said, taking the date of the vandalism into account, she saw it as clearly “politically motivated” and called it “an attack on our democracy.”
Sebastian Striegel, a member of state parliament from the Green Party, also posted images of the crime, and in coordination with the Zeitz Alliance for Diversity and Democracy and the Stolpersteine for Zeitz initiative, Striegel offered a reward of 1,000 euros for information that leads to the arrest of the perpetrators and the return of the stones.
Federal police have taken over the investigation to track down those responsible.
Photo credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber via The Times of Israel
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