Stolpersteine in Belgium: since when, and whom do they recall?

Belgium’s first Stolpersteine were laid in 2009. In French they are called pavés de mémoire. Each stone recalls a person whom the Nazis persecuted between 1933 and 1945. Together with the Netherlands, Belgium has more than 15,600 stones, according to Stichting 18 September.

Since when are there stones in Belgium?

The idea comes from the German artist Gunter Demnig, who began in 1992. The first stones for individual people were laid in Cologne in 1995, and the project then grew. In the Netherlands the first stones were laid in Borne in 2007. Belgium followed in 2009. Since 2019, Stichting 18 September in Eindhoven has kept a database of the stones in both countries, together with local organisations.

Private people and local groups request and pay for the stones, such as relatives, residents and schools. Each stone is for one person. Families get stones side by side, so that they are together again in front of their home.

Whom do the stones recall?

The stones recall all groups that the Nazis persecuted between 1933 and 1945. That includes Jews, Sinti and Roma, people persecuted for political reasons, resistance members, homosexual men, Jehovah’s Witnesses, victims of the so-called euthanasia murders of sick and disabled people, forced labourers, deserters and conscientious objectors, and others. Stones are also laid for people who survived, for example by fleeing or going into hiding.

What is written on a stone?

The text usually begins with “HIER WOONDE” in Dutch or “ICI HABITAIT” in French. Then come the name, the year of birth and what happened. Dutch stones use words such as gearresteerd (arrested), gedeporteerd (deported), vermoord (murdered), ondergedoken (went into hiding) and bevrijd (liberated). French stones use words such as né (born), arrêté (arrested), déporté (deported) and assassiné (murdered). Places and camps named on stones include Auschwitz, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen, Mauthausen, Theresienstadt and Dachau. These were Nazi camps, and Auschwitz and Sobibor were places of mass murder.

Mechelen and the Dossin barracks

In Belgium, Jews and Roma were deported from the Dossin barracks in Mechelen, most of them to Auschwitz. More than 25,000 people were deported from there. Kazerne Dossin is also listed among the archives for researching a person.

To see where stones lie near you, open the map on Stolpersteine.app.