MALDEN — An international spokeswoman told a group of more than 300 Malden High School students Thursday that the best way to honor victims of the Holocaust is to keep their names alive in the present.
Mayor Gary Christenson, Superintendent of Schools John Oteri and Malden High School principal Ted Lombardi joined several Malden High teachers and a representative of the German Consulate in Boston, Elizabeth von Wagner, in hosting a special presentation in Malden.
On Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the Jewish New Year, they learned some new lessons on the Holocaust from Anne Thomas, director of the Berlin, Germany-based exhibition, “Stolpersteine: Remembrance and Social Sculpture.”
Stolpersteine, whose English translation is “Stumbling Stones,” describes a now 22-year-old movement in Europe where metal plates reconstructed by hand by a craftsman in Germany and then affixed to the sidewalk or street of the last residence a Holocaust victim held “by their own choice,” Thomas stressed.
The Stolpersteine (“Stumbling Stones”) movement was started by one man, artist Gunter Demnig, as a dedicated art project to provide families a means to remember their loved ones killed in the Holocaust. Demnig initiated his quest in 1995, actually illegally, when he started implanting “stumbling stones” in the streets of Berlin. Twenty-two years later, it is estimated there are 60,000 stumbling stones commemorating Holocaust victims in at least eight different countries in Eastern and Western Europe.
With the breadth of land covered by the individual Stolpersteine, the project is regarded as the largest decentralized monument in the world. An independent exhibit, curated by Thomas, contains more than 250 stumbling stones in a Berlin setting. “For the first time ever, the exhibit has left Germany. We were so moved and impressed by Boston’s Holocaust Memorial, we decided it was time to share Stolpersteine with the world,” Thomas said.
The Malden High social studies and history department staff sent 25 students, accompanied by Christenson, Oteri and Lombardi, to the Holocaust Memorial for a special viewing as the guest of German Consulate General Ralf Horlemann.
The visit had been arranged in response to a random act of vandalism at the Memorial in August, resulting in charges filed against a Malden teen. The Consulate General, impressed by the Malden students’ compassion and deep interest in the Holocaust Memorial, arranged Thursday’s visit by Thomas.
“In Malden we stand up for justice and stand against bigotry,” Oteri said, noting that during the visit to the Memorial, the students were addressed by Auschwitz survivor Israel Arbeiter, a 92-year-old who, Oteri said, has agreed to come speak at Malden High in the future. “He’s (Arbeiter) a living hero for all of us to know,” Oteri said.
Lombardi told the students: “We are extremely honored to have an international speaker at Malden High School to talk on such an important subject. You as students are fortunate to have such a wealth of knowledge provided for you.”
Lombardi noted that members of the Malden High history department staff are getting their own project off the ground to raise funds to purchase “stumbling stones” to honor Janet Applefield’s mother, who was killed during the Holocaust, and Alan Brown, father of Malden resident and activist Fern Remedi-Brown, who was a Holocaust survivor.
“Both of these people (Applefield and Remedi-Brown) have been visiting Malden High School for years to share their stories, so we are purchasing these as a way to honor their families,” said Greg Hurley, a Malden High teacher coordinating the project.
Thomas told the students there was a link between the atmosphere in Europe, particularly Germany, in the years preceding the Holocaust, where over six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of others were murdered by the Nazis “just because they were different.”
