The first memorial, called 'stumbling block' or Stolperstein, commemorating victims of the Ustasha and Nazi regimes in World War II Croatia, was installed on Thursday in Zagreb's 29 Gunduliceva Street, for Jewish child theatre prodigy Lea Deutsch, who lived at that address.
This is the first stumbling block to be installed in the Croatian capital, and the first stumbling block in Croatia was installed in Rijeka.
Two more will be installed in Zagreb later in the day, and by the end of November a total of 20 will be put at different locations throughout the city, outside the houses once occupied by Zagreb Jews – victims of the Holocaust.
The project “Stumbling Blocks” or originally “Stolpersteine” was launched in 1996 by the German artist Guenter Demnig and the Berlin-based New Society for Visual Arts. The project has been implemented across Europe and so far around 75,000 such memorials have been put up to commemorate Jews killed in the Holocaust and other victims of the Holocaust, including Roma and homosexuals.
The project is about installing commemorative brass plaques in the pavement in front of the last address of choice of Jews killed in the Holocaust. The plaques display the victim’s name and other basic information and the reason why they were prosecuted or killed.
The installation of Stolpersteine in Zagreb was initiated and organised by the Centre for Promotion of Tolerance and Preservation of Holocaust Remembrance in cooperation with the Beth Israel Jewish community from Zagreb and the Stiftung – Spuren foundation, established by Demnig.
Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek said at the event that she believed this project, too, would contribute to a systematic and structured education about the Holocaust and encourage the uncovering of the truth as the only long-term guarantee of survival and progress of the modern democratic European society.
She said her ministry would continue supporting projects and initiatives by all associations and communities that share those values and work on their promotion.
German Ambassador Robert Richard Klinke, who attended the event, said that one should warn about the ever-growing anti-Semitism worldwide and the fact that there was less and less new information and knowledge about Nazi crimes.
This is cause for concern, he said, underlining the importance of remembrance.
The rabbi of the Beth Israel Jewish community, Kotel Da-Don, said that the purpose of the Stolpersteine project was not to count injustices but to promote remembrance for the sake of a peaceful and better future.
Memorials for ZOZ members without participation of ZOZ
The head of the Jewish Community of Zagreb and of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Communities in Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, expressed regret that the commendable project, which commemorates ZOZ members killed in the Holocaust and which he was glad about, had been prepared without the participation of ZOZ members.
Kraus recalled that it had been ZOZ’s wish that the first Stolperstein should commemorate exactly Lea Deutsch, who was a member of the Jewish Community of Zagreb as were all the others to be commemorated by the project.
But, he believes, “it is telling that ZOZ, which was the one that launched the project in 2018, was not included in it.”
“I am surprised that the City of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture agreed to this solution even though that is in line with the policy that has been pursued lately,” said Kraus.
Attending the commemoration were also, among others, Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor and MP Vesna Bedekovic, as the envoy of Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, as well as Zagreb Deputy Mayor Jelena Pavicic-Vukicevic.
After the stumbling block outside Lea Deutsch’s house in Gunduliceva Street, another such memorial will be installed in 8 Amruseva Street for Miroslav Salom Freiberger, the Zagreb chief rabbi in WWII who saved many members of his community but was killed in Auschwitz right after disembarking from the train because he objected to Nazi brutality.
