NEWS New Stolpersteine in Rome

By Adam Smulevich

At the beginning of January 20 new commemorative memorial plaques were placed in the city of Rome and other cities throughout Italy.
Known as “stumbling blocks”, the “stolpersteine”, cobblestone-sized memorials which were created by the artist Gunter Demnig, commemorate through the powerful message of art where the victims of the Shoah and of Nazi-Fascist cruelty lived.

In Rome, the ceremony was coordinated by Adachiara Zevi who is in charge of the project “Memorie d’inciampo a Roma” and supported by the President of the Republic, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Union of Italian Jewish Communities and the Jewish Community of Rome.

“With these stone plaques there is a sign of tangible memory which speaks to the conscience of all us,” Adachiara Zevi said during the opening of “Memorie d’inciampo”. By her side were Martina Nibbeling-Wrießnig, vice-ambassador of Germany in Italy and Sabina Alfonsi, president of the of the Rome municipality.

Demnig himself placed the new stolpersteine in the old Jewish Ghetto during a powerful and moving ceremony. Of the eleven members of the Sabatello family commemorated by them, only Leone survived deportation: his parents, his sisters, his nephews and his uncle were all killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau.