Stolperstein (2008)

At the center of the film is Gunter Demnig, a conceptual artist in a cowboy hat, who has by now set the names of more than 22,000 of the six million Nazi victims—most of them forgotten—into the sidewalks of Germany and Europe. Dörte Franke accompanies him on his journey to meet relatives and helpers. His project is opposed by neo-Nazis, rejected by representatives of the Jewish community, and even banned in some places. Yet behind every Stolperstein are dedicated helpers and private donations. In recent years, a citizens’ movement has taken shape in many places and continues to grow every day. The film is at once an artist’s portrait, a road movie, and the story of the world’s largest decentralized memorial. Dörte Franke accompanies a restless artist who has made it his life’s work to bring erased biographies back into everyday life. The film takes us to people for whom these miniature memorials strike a nerve in very different ways: In Hamburg, three women painstakingly polish Stolpersteine to come to terms with the difficult legacy of their SS fathers. In Britain, a man campaigns for Stolpersteine outside the Munich home of his murdered parents, but is thwarted by Munich mayor Christian Ude and Charlotte Knobloch of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. In Austria, two Sinti see the Stolpersteine in Hochburg-Ach as a substitute gravestone for their grandfather. In Hungary, a young woman hopes that the art project will get her fellow countrymen talking about a repressed past. More and more people see not just small brass plaques, but a way to encounter history. The enormous demand is becoming almost impossible to meet. But the artist still wants to make and lay each stone by laborious hand. He is convinced that only in this way can an individual fate be brought home. “I think somehow we want to feel that we are atoning for our guilt. If our parents were standing there now, in front of the Stolpersteine, that would be right. Instead, we children are standing there.” (Film quote from “Stolperstein”)