The recent city council decision in Heidenau, Saxony to ban the installation of new Stolpersteine in public streets is a painful blow to everyday remembrance of Holocaust victims. My message is not addressed to local politicians, but directly to those residents in Heidenau who feel heartbroken, angry, or alienated by this outcome: I stand with you.
Those of us raised in Saxony, educated through works like Anna Seghers' The Seventh Cross or Bruno Apitz's Naked Among Wolves, and shaped by visiting memorial sites like Buchenwald, carry an undeniable responsibility to remember. We must not surrender to powerlessness. To every resident of Heidenau feeling isolated right now: my door is open. If you want to talk, meet, or organize, reach out anytime. We stand together so that authoritarian tendencies find no quarter.
