Holocaust remembrance wall plaques will replace commemorative cobblestones that some say are disrespectful because they are placed in the ground and get trodden on.
ADVERTISEMENTAuthorities in Munich have started to install new Holocaust remembrance wall plaques as a replacement for commemorative cobblestones that some say are disrespectful.
The change follows a court ruling in December, which backed the city’s 2015 decision to replace the cobblestones over claims they were disrespectful because they are laid in the ground and get trodden on.
When finished, the new plaques will commemorate 10,000 men, women and children from Munich who were killed by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945, the City of Munich said in a statement.
The plaques, which are to be placed outside the last known home or workplace of the victim, will display a picture of the person if one is available, as well as details of their lives and the persecution they suffered under Nazi rule.
The first of the new memorial signs was installed on Thursday, in honour of husband and wife Franz and Tilly Landauer.
The Jewish insurance agents were abducted by the Nazis, and Franz died in 1943 in Westerbork camp in the Netherlands, while Tilly died the following year in Auschwitz, the statement said.
"It is important to me that we find forms of individual remembrance of the victims of the Nazi era in Munich," said Mayor Dieter Reiter.
"With the memorial steles and tablets, we will succeed in this in an appropriate way."
However, while some say the cobblestones, known as "Stolpersteine" (Stumbling Blocks), are disrespectful, others want to keep them.
An online petition calling for their removal in Munich to be stopped has received more than 100,000 signatures