The inscription on a Stolperstein usually follows the same order. You read from top to bottom. First comes an opening line, such as “HIER WOONDE”. Then come the name, the year of birth and what happened to the person. The last lines often give a date and a place.
Line 1: the opening
Dutch stones usually say “HIER WOONDE”, which means “here lived”. The stone lies in front of the last home the person chose freely. If it was a workplace or school, the text may say “Hier werkte” (here worked) or “Hier studeerde” (here studied).
Lines 2 and 3: the name and the year of birth
The name follows. The year of birth belongs to the name. The word “geboren” or the abbreviation “geb.” means “born”. German stones use “Jg.”, short for Jahrgang, which means year of birth. To check a name and a year, you can consult the archives named below.
Line 4 onwards: what happened
The last lines say what happened next, with the date and place of arrest, deportation or death. Common words are:
- gearresteerd: arrested
- gedeporteerd: deported
- ondergedoken: went into hiding
- geïnterneerd: interned
- vermoord: murdered
- overleden: died
- bevrijd: liberated
- overleefd: survived
- gevlucht: fled
- verzet: resistance
Place names and words in other languages
Auschwitz and Sobibor were places of mass murder. Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and Vught were Nazi camps. German stones use words such as “deportiert” (deported), “ermordet” (murdered), “verhaftet” (arrested) and “überlebt” (survived). French stones use “né” or “née” (born), “arrêté” (arrested), “déporté” (deported) and “assassiné” (murdered).
If you want to learn more about a person, you can search at the Joods Monument or the Oorlogsgravenstichting. Read the whole text first, and only then the single words, so you see which line belongs to which part. A stone always concerns one person, even when more stones lie side by side. On a Stolperschwelle, a long brass strip, one text covers the whole group. Is the text hard to read? Brass tarnishes outdoors and turns dark. Clean the stone first; see the page on cleaning.
On the map you can see who is commemorated at each address.
Read on
Why are they called stumbling stones (Stolpersteine)?
Stolperstein is German for stumbling stone. The stones lie flush with the pavement, so you do not trip over them, but you must bow to read the name.
Stolperstein or struikelsteen: is there a difference?
Stolperstein is German for stumbling stone. In Dutch people often say struikelsteen, which means the same. Both words name one small memorial stone.
Who is Gunter Demnig, the artist behind the Stolpersteine?
Gunter Demnig is a German artist, born in 1947 in Berlin. He had the idea for the Stolpersteine in 1992 and laid most of the stones himself for many years.
