The Stones of the Disappeared. Let us bow down before the names of the victims

However, there are several other imaginative and eloquent names bearing a certain extent of symbolism. For example, the stones of those who have disappeared, or stumbling blocks (!). It’s not only that you may happen to trip over the stone: you are meant to trip over it. The inscription on the brass plate on the surface reminds us of the victims of Nazi atrocities; to read the inscription we have to bend down. Bow before the name of the victim. Not only Jewish victims, but also Roma, members of the Resistance, or even homosexuals and other 'undesirable' members of society. 

The idea for these unremarkable but insistent memorials to Nazi victims originated, fittingly, in Germany; the author, Gunter Demnig, created the first Stones and set them in the pavement in Cologne and Berlin in 1995. 

The Stones of the Disappeared are placed in front of the houses where the victims last lived or worked and can be seen in many European cities. In the Czech Republic, they first appeared in 2008 in Prague and Kolín; now they can be found elsewhere, for example in Brno, Ostrava, Třeboň, Olomouc, Kroměříž, Liberec and most recently in Miroslav. 

The names etched in brass are screaming reminders. They are truly meaningful and it is great that there are more and more of these “stumbling blocks”. Silently, they scream louder than a screaming mob of Nazis.  

The last laying of the Stones of the Disappeared took place just recently, on Saturday 9 March 2024, in Miroslav. These Stones are a memorial to Martha, Hannah, and Ruth Herzog and they commemorate their murder, which took place along with 3,800 other prisoners in the Terezin “family camp” in Auschwitz, on the night of 8-9 March 1944, exactly 80 years ago.

Miroslav was one of the traditional Jewish towns of Moravia; the presence of Jews is documented here since the late 16th century. The surname Herzog is firmly connected with the Jewish community of Miroslav. It is known that as early as 1825, four families of this name lived in the Miroslav ghetto and the name is still present to this day.

100 years ago, in 1924, Julius, the son of Heinrich and Fanny Herzog, married Martha, née Weinberger, and had three children with her: daughters Hannah and Ruth and a son named Otto, who died of tetanus at the age of three.

After the death of Julius in the summer of 1936, and following the Munich agreement, in early October 1938, Martha fled with her daughters, Hanna and Ruth, first to Brno and then to Prague, to escape the danger the Jews were facing in the borderlands. Other Jews from Miroslav also became victims of the anti-Jewish measures. They were expelled from their homes and deprived of their property.

The family spent the next four years in Prague. It is not known whether the girls attended school, as Jewish children had very limited opportunities.

In December 1942 Marta, Hana and Ruth were interned in Terezín. In September 1943, along with another 5,000 Terezín prisoners, they were deported to Auschwitz and placed in the Terezín family camp. Within six months, approximately 1,200 of the original number of prisoners had died. Except for a few dozen persons, the remaining 3,800 prisoners were murdered in the gas chambers on the night of 8-9 March 1944.

The first Stones of the Disappeared in Moravia were laid in Brno in 2010, others can be seen in Znojmo and Ivančice. In Miroslav, the Stones have now been laid for the first time. 

The funds for their purchase were raised by the pupils of the local primary school throughout November and December 2023. The kids baked traditional Jewish sweets called haman's ears for the donors. Since more funds were collected than were needed, the laying of the Stones will continue in Miroslav. The Stones will be delivered by the Jewish Community of Brno. The current owners of the house in which the Herzog family once lived agree with the activity and strongly support it.

The laying of the Stones of the Disappeared was also attended by school children from Spremberg in Brandenburg and by members of the local Protestant congregation, which is a partner of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren in Miroslav. Members of this German congregation have been coming to Miroslav since the 1990s to help with the maintenance of the local Jewish cemetery. On Friday, the German and the Czech students visited Jewish monuments in Boskovice. In Spremberk, too, they laid the first Stones of the Disappeared in 2022 and 2023. This was one of the many impulses that led to the realization of this event in Miroslav.

Jana Plíšková, Daniela Bednaříková