Heidenau Council Bans New Holocaust Memorial Stumbling Stones

The Heidenau City Council approved a motion to ban the future installation of Stolpersteine, the brass memorial plaques embedded in sidewalks to commemorate victims of Nazi persecution. The decision, passed on Thursday, was proposed and supported by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Council members argued that the plaques are inappropriate because pedestrians walk over the names of the victims, proposing instead that future commemorations be concentrated at a memorial site in the town's northern cemetery.

The move contradicts a recommendation from the Heidenau city administration, which stated a blanket ban was unnecessary. The collaboration between the CDU and AfD has drawn sharp criticism for breaching the Brandmauer, an informal firewall intended to prevent mainstream parties from cooperating with the far-right.

International and national figures condemned the ban. Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor expressed shame over the decision, while German Education Minister Karin Prien called it a "scandal," arguing that moving memorials to cemeteries makes Jewish people "invisible once again." Gunter Demnig, the artist who created the Stolpersteine project, rejected the ban and attributed the council's action to the electoral success of the AfD. The International Auschwitz Committee also condemned the CDU's support of the motion as scandalous.