Stolpersteine

Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day. The person who may have done most to keep memories of victims alive is German artist Gunter Demnig. Since 1992 he has been placing small square brass plaques (Stolpersteine) on pavements to mark the last place they lived. He says “a person is not forgotten until his or her name is forgotten”.

He began his project in 1992 and now there are more than 100,000, including six in Dublin and one in London. But my attention was caught yesterday by a group of twenty outside one house in Rome.

“The stumbling stones (pietre d’inciampo) here are for 20 members of the extended family of Mosè Di Consiglio. The people remembered here are:

– Mosè Di Consiglio and his wife Orabona Moscato Di Consiglio;
– their son Salomone, his wife Gemma Di Tivoli and their 8 children (Virginia, Marco, Santoro, Franco, Rina Ester, Marisa, Lina and Cesare, ages 18 months – 21 years);
– their daughter Clara, her husband Angelo Di Castro and their 2 young children (Giuliana and Giovanni);
– their son Graziano, his wife Enrica, their son Mario Marco and Enrica’s brother, Leonello Di Consiglio.

Of the 20 family members killed, six men were executed on 24 March 1944 at the Fosse Ardeatine: Mosè Di Consiglio, Salomone Di Consiglio, Marco Di Consiglio, Santoro Di Consiglio, Franco Di Consiglio and Angelo Di Consiglio. Ten others were murdered at Auschwitz (eight on 23 May 1944 and two more on other known dates). Another four were also deported to Auschwitz, but the actual places and dates of their deaths remain unknown.

Another son of Mosè and Orabona — Cesare Di Consiglio — was also killed at Fosse Ardeatine 24mar 1944. His wife Celeste Vivanti and their 3 children under 7 years old had been rounded up on 16 October 1943 and murdered at Auschwitz on 23 October 1943. Pietre d’inciampo for the five are at Via Amerigo Vespucci 41.

Finally, another daughter, Ester, married Cesare Spizzichino and they had 3 children, including Giulia Spizzichino. Giulia not only survived the war but also was active decades later in the extradition of the Nazi Erich Priebke from Argentina to Italy and in his prosecution, including testifying against him in the trial for his role in the Fosse Ardeatine massacre.

In the center of the Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice in Testaccio, Rome, a garden is named in honor of the Di Consiglio family.

The small brass plaques, in the pavement in front of houses of which the (mostly Jewish) residents were persecuted or murdered by the Nazis, mention the name, date of birth and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death.

In many other cities, mainly in Germany but also in other European countries, the memorials also can be found. There are already many thousands of these plaques and their number is still counting. Almost all Stolpersteine are laid by the German artist himself, Gunter Demnig.” (Tracesofwar)

The individual and cumulative impact of these stumbling stones and their locations may keep memories alive more than names on memorials.

“When research on a particular person is completed, Demnig sets out to manufacture an individual Stolperstein. The person’s name and dates of birth, deportation and death, if known, are engraved into the brass plate. The words Hier wohnte … (‘Here lived …’) are written on most of the plates, emphasizing that the victims of persecution did not live and work at any anonymous place, but “right here”. The Stolperstein is then inserted at flush level into the roadway or sidewalk, at the individual’s last known place of freely chosen residence or work, with the intention to “trip up the passer-by” and draw attention to the memorial.“ (Wikipedia)