The silver-shining REMEMBRANCE STONES are largely based on the gold-shining STOLPERSTEINE, both in appearance and content.
The REMEMBRANCE STONES are intended to commemorate people who were not direct victims of National Socialism, but rather of the related Francoism. This creates a memorial bridge to the German National Socialists, because without National Socialist support, General Francisco Franco would not have been able to expand and maintain his power and repression in this form and speed for over 40 years.
Like the STOLPERSTEINE, the REMEMBRANCE STONES are meant to give people back their names and remember the fate of each individual. The inscriptions will document – as with the STOLPERSTEINE – the most important information and persecution stations of the respective victims, such as the name, year of birth, arrest, and date of death.
The surface of the REMEMBRANCE STONES is made of stainless steel, giving these stones their own silver shine. The dimensions of the stones and their production are comparable to the production of the STOLPERSTEINE and STOLPERSCHWELLEN. The biggest difference is merely in the force that our STOLPERSTEIN sculptor Michael-Friedrichs-Friedländer must use to clearly engrave the text with the punch letters into the harder metal.
The first of these memorial stones were laid in December 2018 for 20 mayors and politicians who were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by nationalists and supporters of Franco in Mallorca between 1936 and 1939. Their stones now lie in front of their former homes or their former workplaces, the town halls.
As with the first evolution from STOLPERSTEINE to STOLPERSCHWELLEN, the artist Gunter Demnig has responded to the increasing requests for memorial stones for victims of other repressive systems or violence with the creation of the REMEMBRANCE STONES.
Like the STOLPERSTEINE and STOLPERSCHWELLEN, the REMEMBRANCE STONES will be a long-term project with a symbolic character. They are intended to have an effect over decades and thus remind many generations of the victims of dictatorships and oppression and encourage reflection.
Meanwhile, nearly 150 REMEMBRANCE STONES have already been laid in Spain.
If you would like to know more about this new project or would like to apply for the laying of REMEMBRANCE STONES, please contact Dr. Anne Thomas.