International project
The German artist – sculptor Gunter Demnig developed the Stolpersteine idea (see also here) in 1993/94 and placed the first Stones in the streets of German Cologne, with Berlin and other German townships following. As of today, more than 23 thousand Stones were laid in hundreds of European cities. the Stolpersteine project has gradually expanded beyond the German borders and the Stolpersteine can today be found in Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Norway and Denmark and of course the Czech Republic.
In all these countries, local initiatives or executive teams, cognizant of local environment, conduct a research into holocaust and gather the names and other information on the victims and places of their last residence before deportation. The teams work with their municipalities, get the permissions for laying of the Stones and organize events to popularize the Stolpersteine idea. All the Stones Europe-wide are produced by Gunter Demnig and his Cologne team, based on an order from the local initiatives. Gunter travels Europe a lot and sets personally almost all the Stones in the pavement. The funding for the project is diverse but sponsorship by private donors and donations by local institutions and organizations fill the most of project’s budet.
