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Monday, July 11, 2022

More Remnants of the Holocaust.


As we pass through this hallway in the old, worn building, we come to a courtyard that is completed on the other three size by refurbished buildings (or sections of this one block-sized building. In this courtyard is a wall. "The" wall.

This is a section of the ghetto wall that once contained the Jew as they waited for deportation to a death camp.


In front of some of the buildings in this district (number 7) we find "stumble stones" or Stolperstein.

Stolperstein (pronounced [ˈʃtɔlpɐˌʃtaɪn] (listen); plural Stolpersteineliterally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, ten-centimetre (3.9 in) concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.

The Stolpersteine project, initiated by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, aims to commemorate individuals at exactly the last place of residency—or, sometimes, work—which was freely chosen by the person before they fell victim to Nazi terror, euthanasiaeugenics, deportation to a concentration or extermination camp, or escaped persecution by emigration or suicide. As of December 2019, 75,000[1] Stolpersteine have been laid, making the Stolpersteine project the world's largest decentralized memorial.[2][3]

The majority of Stolpersteine commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust.[4] Others have been placed for Sinti and Romani people (then also called "gypsies"), Poles, homosexuals, the physically or mentally disabledJehovah's Witnessesblack people, members of the Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the anti-Nazi Resistance, the Christian opposition (both Protestants and Catholics), and Freemasons, along with International Brigade soldiers in the Spanish Civil War, military desertersconscientious objectors, escape helpers, capitulators, "habitual criminals", looters, and others charged with treason, military disobedience, or undermining the Nazi military, as well as Allied soldiers.

It doesn't take  an understanding of Hungarian to understand what they say.


Other buildings are in better condition that those presented so far. This one has a delightful doorway.


Once inside we see this wonderful old elevator built int the stairwell.


Eery apartment has a door window with iron protection but the ironwork is not simply utilitarian. There is a design to these places that feels inviting.


 

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