The aim of this diploma thesis is to introduce the reader to the art-historical project Stolpersteine. Its author is the German Gunter Demnig, who first came up with the idea to honor the memory of Holocaust victims in 1992. The purpose of the project is to commemorate the victims of World War II and the Nazi regime, not only Jews but also Roma, homosexuals and Jehovah's Witnesses. Stolpersteine are in the form of paving stones with a brass surface, which are usually inserted into the sidewalk before the last known voluntary residence of the victim. The Stolpersteine project soon attracted the attention of experts and the general public throughout Europe. In the Czech Republic, the first memorial stone was laid in 2008 in Prague, then in Mikulov, and more are added to various parts of the country every year. Laying new stones is not a trivial matter and the legislative process, which begins with an application and ends with the issuance of a decision, involves a number of steps. The purpose of Stolpersteine is to get today's young generation to reflect on events that its representatives have not experienced, but whose legacy continues to shape political and social events not only in Germany but also in other European countries, including the Czech Republic. Due to their location by the ground, the...

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The Stolpersteine memorial art project commemorates individual Holocaust victims by placing small brass plates outside the last known place they freely lived or worked. To date around 70,000 of these ‘stones’ have been laid across 24 countries, making it the largest decentralised monument in the world. The work grows by virtue of community action from relatives, neighbours and activists. This paper examines how the memorial form functions in a specific context. An ‘unofficial' version has been running in Vienna since 2005, termed Stones of Remembrance. It shares key characteristics with Stolpersteine but the approach in the Austrian capital is distinctly different, with local interpretations. This case study into the Vienna experience investigates public response to these stones drawing on research material that includes interviews with specific stakeholders and the general public who encounter them on a day to day basis. It highlights Austria’s role in the Holocaust, and struggle to belatedly come to terms with its complicity in what happened on local streets. Key questions are whether placing history at a neighbourhood level engages the public more actively than centralised state actions? How do people understand and engage with these pieces and are they effective sites of memory, reflection or imagining? Public response in Vienna suggests that memorial stones might be valuable communication tools not only for remembering the past, but for the present too - as reminders of past abuses that can serve as warnings for the future. As an example of a participatory approach to memory work Stones of Remembrance / Stolpersteine can have relevance as a communication for development and social change tool, with potential application in other post conflict contexts.

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