Belgrade, Serbia
Belgrade, SerbiaiStock

Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, has unveiled five stumbling stones in honor of Holocaust victims.

Five brass plates referred to as Stolpersteine (“stumbling blocks”) were installed in Belgrade by German sculptor Gunter Demnig at the former residences of Holocaust victims.

Each one was marked with the names of the dead, describing their place of birth and where they died, according to Balkan Insight.

One of the stumbling stones was unveiled in front of the building where Emil, Avgusta, Hilda and Hans Dajc lived; another in front of the former home of Belgrade architect Matvey Ajzinberg; and a third in front of the former residence of Simon and Evgenija Bril.

The ceremony outside the former home of the Dajc family was attended by the president of Federation of Jewish Communities in Serbia, Robert Sabados. Sabados applauded Demnig for his work preserving the “names of our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, neighbours, friends, who were taken away, torn out, destroyed, even left without a burial place by the mindless Second World War.”

“The stone is there to encourage passers-by, neighbours, bystanders, me, you, all of us, to stop in this hectic moment, read the record and look around in disbelief and ask ourselves the eternal question: ‘Is it possible that this happened?’” Sabados said.

During the Nazi occupation of Serbia, 18,000 Jews were murdered.

The Stolpersteine project, which was started by Demnig in 1992, has unveiled 75,000 stumbling stones across Europe at the last place of residency of victims of the Nazis.