By Lisa Ashkins
SAN DIEGO — On a recent trip to Berlin, Germany (where my mother was from) a German friend who lives in the U.S. pointed out to me the Stolpersteine “stumbling stones” placed among the cobblestones we innocently walked on from one destination to the next.
As I explored the streets on my own days before my friend’s arrival, I had not noticed the engraved brass squares. Once he pointed them out, I could not help but see them everywhere on the days that followed as we walked the city.
The Talmud says, “a person is not forgotten until his or her name is forgotten.” In 1996 the artist Gunter Demnig, with this saying in mind, brought to Berlin a project he started in Cologne and which still continues today. He began the arduous task of designing, fabricating, and installing stolpersteine in front of the homes where the victims of National Socialism last lived voluntarily.
They commemorate persecuted and murdered individuals from ALL population groups with the introductory words HERE LIVED, their birth and death dates and the circumstances of their death. Since then, Demnig and other artists have laid over 100,000 stones in almost 1,900 municipalities in 31 European countries, most of them in Germany.
Originally intended only for Jewish victims of the Shoah, the project was extended to remember Sinti, Roma, political and religious persecutes, people that took part in the resistance, Jehovah’s Witnesses, people with mental and/or physical disabilities, people persecuted because of their sexual orientation or skin color, forced laborers, people stigmatized and persecuted as “asocial” such as homeless persons, and ultimately all people who suffered under the regime.
Not only do the stones give victims their names back, but they also shine a light on the extensive exclusion, dispossession, persecution, and imprisonment that took place in full view of neighbors.
As I read stone after stone- often multiple stones at one household, I sadly reflected on the parallels of what unfolded in 1930’s Germany and what is unfolding in this country within our own neighborhoods. Not a day goes by without the news that somebody’s neighbor is being removed suddenly from their homes or places of work, often forcefully in front of family, friends and co-workers, children are being separated from their parents, deaths are occurring while in detention, and barbaric centers such as “Alligator Alcatraz” are being prepared to warehouse these individuals. Trump’s just passed “Big Beautiful Bill” will supercharge the administration’s border and immigration goals including detaining and deporting a record number of people from the U.S.
Nobody is arguing against humane, prudent, and fair immigration guidelines however, in addition to being cruel, these hardline measures overlook the essential role immigrants play in the US economy. Though often portrayed as criminals, statistics show undocumented immigrants make up a small percentage of the foreign-born population – far outnumbered by naturalized citizens, permanent residents, and temporary visa holders. Their economic impact is disproportionate – filling critical roles in agriculture, healthcare, and entrepreneurship, particularly in tech and engineering while paying billions of dollars in taxes annually. Something I am sure that was not factored into the BBB.
Perhaps saddest of all, Trump’s policies ignore his own family history. His grandfather arrived as an unaccompanied, undocumented teenager from Germany, while his mother immigrated from Scotland with little money – neither would meet the strict citizenship requirements he now proposes.
As the daughter of immigrants (one was a Jew) who made positive contributions to this country, and knowing the countless contributions most immigrants have made and continue to make to this country, I have always been sensitive to their place in the U.S.- and they certainly do have a place.
This country was built by immigrants and is nothing without its immigrants. In addition to those affected by the immigration roundups, policies developed and carried out by this administration, our government representatives and the Supreme Court have led to growing numbers of U.S. citizens being excluded, dispossessed, persecuted, and imprisoned. It may not be long before we see Stolpersteine at our feet remembering those that disappeared in full view of us.
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Freelance writer Lisa Ashkins’ mother, Lieselotte Balte Ashkins, has documented with movie footage the Nuremberg Trials and other aspects of Nazi Germany. Lisa Ashkins resides in San Diego.