Each stone stands for a person
The Stumbling Stones (Stolpersteine) are a project by the artist Gunter Demnig. He uses them to commemorate people who were persecuted, imprisoned, deported, expelled, forced to commit suicide or murdered during the Nazi era. The Stolpersteine are set in the sidewalk in front of the last place of residence chosen by the persecuted person. Each stone stands for a name. For a person.
With over 70,000 stones now laid in 1,265 municipalities in Germany and 21 European countries, the Stolpersteine are the largest decentralized memorial in the world.
The “Stumbling Stones for Speyer” initiative aims to preserve the memory of the citizens of Speyer who were persecuted by the Nazi regime. Their names and fates are to be visibly brought back into the memory of the city.
It is important to the initiators to commemorate all those persecuted by the National Socialists - those of Jewish faith, but also resistance fighters, those branded as “asocial”, those persecuted because of their sexual or political orientation, victims of “euthanasia” and all other persecuted people.
In memory of the Jewish victims of the Nazi era
The memorial to the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution stands on the corner of Hellergasse and Karlsgasse. It was made from basalt lava by the Speyer artist Wolf Spitzer and contains a piece of the floor of the synagogue destroyed during the Reichspogromnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in 1938.
The memorial itself has a living history and has virtually “grown” into its current form over the years. It began in 1978 with a memorial plaque on the west façade of the "Kaufhof" department store building. During a commemorative event ten years later, the idea of erecting a memorial was born.
On 9 November 1992, the basalt lava cube made by Spitzer was unveiled in front of the memorial plaque. A few years later, it was moved to a more suitable location. A bronze plaque with the names of the victims and an iron-woven canopy were also added. The completed memorial was finally presented to the public in July 2020. It is a symbol of remembrance and horror, but also of love, hope and tolerance.