To remember. Read their names.
As I was photographing one of these brass Stolpersteine, an elderly man came up to us and said in German “it’s important to remember the bad things that happen.”
Artist Gunter Demnig creates the Stoplersteines and personally places them in the sidewalks, using a small trowel, in front of the residences where individuals and families were taken by the Nazis. They all say “here lived_______” , their name and their dates and the location where they were murdered.
Writer Megan King says in her article https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/the-deeper-meaning-behind-berlins-brass-cobblestones/ “These cobblestone plaques that bear a tragic chapter of German history are the open-ended project first initiated in 1996 by the German artist Gunter Demnig. Not only is their message one of remembrance and of personalising the victims by honouring their names, but their purpose is also thought-provoking, aiming to initiate discussion and stimulate thought.”
(Link to another post about the Stolpersteine remembrance project)
The last photo taken at night illustrating how the light catches the brass plaques. Here are a few of the thousands of stolpersteines placed in Berlin but the project has expanded to other countries as well.