Green catfish cleaning stumbling blocks: memory of the victims of the Nazi regime
Green catfish cleaning stumbling blocks: memory of the victims of the Nazi regime
Wels, Österreich - The Greens from Wels and Welsland devoted themselves to the care of the culture of memory on June 11, 2025 and cleaned six stumbling blocks in the city. These small but meaningful brass plates in the soil are reminiscent of the tragic fates of persecuted and murdered people during the Nazi era. These memorial sites are laid at a total of four locations in Wels, which have been neglected for a long time. The initiator of this cleaning campaign was Ralph Schallmeiner, the green district spokesman for Wels-Land. He emphasized the importance of visibility of these stones to persuade passers -by to pause and think. "The stumbling blocks are an integral part of our city and earn our attention," says Schallmeiner.
The event for the cleaning campaign was the 80th anniversary of the end of the Nazi regime, an important moment to remember the cruel offenses. Claudia Weitzenböck, Markus Faber and Dominik Maurer also took part in the campaign. Together they not only want to take care of the care, but also to regularly clean the stumbling blocks and thus set a sign against forgetting.
The stories behind the stumbling blocks
The fates of the people to whom the stumbling blocks are reminiscent of are shocking:
- Knorrstrasse: Klara, Ernestine and Elfriede Grünberg, Jewish Welserinnen, were murdered in Maly Trostinez and Izbica in 1942.
- Goethestrasse 21: Karl Ammer, a communist resistance fighter, found death in 1945 in the Mauthausen concentration camp.
- Stefan-Fadinger-Straße 7: Father Paulus Wörndl, a Catholic opponent of the Nazi regime, was executed in 1944 in the Brandenburg prison.
- Rablstraße 3: Ignaz Rößler, social democratic resistance fighter and former municipal council, died in the police prison in Linz in 1945.
The stumbling blocks, which also tell the stories and the personal fate of the victims with every name, are more than just memories - they are part of a lively and moving culture of remembrance. These memorials not only commemorate the past, but also stand for the fight against forgetting, as Gunter Demnig, the initiator of this project, intended. Stumbling blocks are now the largest decentralized memorial in the world, with over 100,000 laid stones in Germany and other European countries that bring the stories of the persecuted back to everyday life. Each stone is handmade and documents the fate of an individual who has suffered from the Nazi regime.
, however, there have also been critical voices that have expressed concerns about the dignity of these commemorative stones. Stumbling blocks are often the goal of right -wing extremist attacks, and initiatives in different cities react with cleaning actions to return their original shine to the memorial stones. So also in Wels, where the Greens show that the memory of the victims of National Socialism must be kept alive and cannot be pushed into the background.
This makes it clear that awareness of history and teaching must also find a place in society in the future. It is a matter of community and responsibility to take care of the stumbling blocks and not to be forgotten the stories of the victims.
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| Ort | Wels, Österreich |
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