Monuments and memorials always used to be large statues and obelisks that you couldn’t miss, but sometimes a more powerful statement can be made with subtlety. Take these stolpersteine, or “stumbling blocks” that I ran across in the narrow streets of Regensburg, Germany:

Artist Gunter Demnig has been installing these brass-covered cobblestones all over Europe outside of the last homes of those deported and killed by the Nazis around the time of the Second World War. This stone reads roughly; “Here lived Gisela Loewy”, birthdate, date of deportation, “murdered”. I have to say, finding these scattered through out the streets at every turn is extremely moving. These small stones do more than any enormous obelisk ever could.

Here’s an article about Demnig and his project from Canada.com.