CRI听力:'Stolpersteine' Remembrance Project for the Victims of Nazi Persecution Showcased at Shangha

In a private-initiative, public-arena project, artist Gunter Demnig sets "stumbling stones" or "Stolpersteine" in the pavement at the last official addresses of victims of the Nazi regime in Germany.

His work is being showcased at the Shanghai World Expo in the Germany Pavilion's studio, a room dedicated to art and culture.

Our reporter, Yang Yong, has more.

Engraved with names and details of the victims of the Nazi regime, pieces of brass plaques showcased here are drawing visitors to the Germany Pavilion.

The visitors kneel to take a closer look at the names on the stones. Marion Conrady, the press officer of the Germany Pavilion, patiently translates the words.

"Here lived Erna Eila Festberg, which is a female name. Her birth name was Bluth. She was born in 1890. She was deported in 1942 to Warsaw where she was murdered."

These shiny, eye-catching stones can now be found both in the concrete pavement and cobblestones of many German cities. More are being added all the time. So far, there are now remembrance plaques at over 500 sites.

They are called "Stolpersteine" in German. Gunter Demnig's project quite literally makes passersby "stumble" over Germany's Nazi history, helping to ensure that they don't forget the atrocities and, above all, the victims and that they stop and think.

The 63-year-old artist says he was inspired by a sentence from the Talmud that "A man is not forgotten until his name is forgotten."

"It is important to remember their names. Those victims at concentration camps were not called by names but by numbers printed on their prison clothing. Their names shouldn't be forgotten."

Demnig says the stones also tell a history that should be remembered by every generation.

"Many young people are unaware of what had happened before. It is important to tell them the history and let them confront the past via textbooks, class discussions and remembrances in the city."

The project does not receive any government aid and relies on donations. It costs 95 euros to sponsor a stone. The work shows how everyone can do something and help bring about change in their hometowns.

Demnig laid the first stone in the Kreuzberg district of his home city of Berlin back in 1997. The brass plaque was not granted official approval until later. Since then, the project has taken on a life of its own and become increasingly popular with the public.

Cheng Yu, a Chinese woman who has lived in Germany for a period of time, thinks highly of the Stolpersteine.

"Compared with other artworks, many of which are either too abstract or unintelligible, the Stolpersteine conveys deep conceptions and has a profound significance to society."

Marion Conrady says the project provides an example of how urban art can be combined with national history, reflecting the idea behind "balancity" – a city in balance – the theme of the German Pavilion.

She also expresses her personal respect for these stumbling stones.

"I am personally touched because I am a German and I know this history. I still cannot believe that this happened, and it happened in such big numbers. Millions of people have been killed for an idea which was totally absurd and which was totally strange and not humane at all… For me this project is great, because it is part of history and it gives something to the victims even though they were killed by the Nazis."

For CRI, I am Yang Yong in Shanghai.