Many descendants of Holocaust survivors do not have anywhere to go to mourn those relatives. Many of them were buried in mass graves, perished on death marches, or had their remains incinerated in concentration camp crematoriums, so they were never properly buried.
The Stolpersteine (stumbling stone) project, which was created by German artist Gunter Demnig, is designed to mark the last residences of Holocaust victims and survivors, giving their descendants a place to return to and serving as a monument to their lives and a reminder of the atrocities of the Nazi regime.
During the 2024 Kristallnacht Commemoration, “The Story of Laying Stolpersteine,” Ellicott City resident Judy Gartner spoke about her own family’s Holocaust history, the process she underwent to install Stolpersteine in Germany in memory of her grandparents, and her continued efforts to support and promote the project.
As of 2024, there are over 113,000 Stolpersteine installed across 31 countries, according to Gartner, making it the world’s largest decentralized Holocaust memorial.
“[Demnig] frequently quotes the Talmud when he says ‘A man is only forgotten when his name is forgotten,’” Gartner said. “Stolpersteine are not just stones, but a link to the past with a story to convey to passersby, thus allowing people to see what happened not so long ago within their communities.”
The event was organized by the Baltimore Jewish Council, which has previously held Kristallnacht commemorations focused on Nazi book burnings and the parallels between Kristallnacht and the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Emily Braverman Goodman, director of Holocaust and countering antisemitism programs at the BJC, said that she connected with Gartner because her husband, Randy, is a member of the BJC’s Holocaust Remembrance Commission.
“We were inspired by the Stolpersteine project and thought it would be a great program to educate our local community about the opportunity to get involved for their own families,” she said.
Gartner’s parents left Germany before Kristallnacht, in 1937 and 1938 respectively. But her paternal grandparents, Friedrich and Ella Weiler, were not so lucky. Though Kristallnacht was what led the Weilers to seek visas to the United States, they were placed on a waitlist with nearly 55,000 other refugees and were unable to receive them in time. In 1942, they were deported to Treblinka and later killed.
Gartner noted that she only knew her grandparents’ old address for the laying of the Stolpersteine because of a letter her father had sent to their former home. In response, he received a letter from a stranger saying that they had been sent to an “old age home.”
She found out about Stolpersteine through a friend, whose coworker had gone to Berlin to lay stumbling stones for their own deceased relatives. In Summer 2023, Gartner journeyed to Berlin with her husband and sister, Susan Oberfeld, for a Stolpersteine installation ceremony in her paternal grandparents’ honor.
On November 9, Gartner returned to Germany, traveling to the small town of Brakel for another stone-laying ceremony — this time, in her father’s memory.
“Although my father went back to Germany many times, he did not go back to Brakel,” she said. “He stated that he did not want people to make nice when they had not been nice. … I hope that he would feel that, by laying these stones, the members of the community are owing to some degree what happened to their citizens.”
Many of the Stolpersteine that have been installed are in European countries, but there have been efforts to expand them to places where Holocaust survivors moved after leaving the continent. More recently, on Oct. 20, replica Stolpersteine were placed around Lake Kittamaqundi in Downtown Columbia.
These stumbling stones are not meant to memorialize any single Holocaust victim or survivor, but to inform people about the Stolpersteine initiative. This was accomplished in part through the efforts of Randy Gartner.
Following Gartner’s presentation, many attendees shared their own family’s Holocaust stories and spoke of the Stolpersteine that had been placed in their relatives’ honor. One of these was Maryland State Delegate Sandy Rosenberg, who brought photos of his relatives and their respective stumbling stones.
“Holocaust commemoration events are mournful in nature, but with this particular event, our commission is hoping attendees will leave feeling both inspired and like they can take action to help further Holocaust commemoration,” Goodman said. “For people to have the ability to permanently mark the land their ancestors lived full, Jewish lives in a place that tried to erase all traces of them is inspiring. It honors their memory and the perseverance of the Jewish people.”
 project, which was created by German artist Gunter Demnig, is designed to mark the last residences of Holocaust victims and survivors,){kind=link}