The Stumbling Stones

Susan Estrich on Oct 1, 2026

They are known as "stumbling stones" -- little brass tiles that for the last 30 years have been installed in the sidewalks outside the homes of Jews murdered in the Holocaust. More than 116,000 stones have been installed across Europe. It is a small thing, but an important one.

Last week, an ugly coalition in the German town of Heidenau voted to ban the installation of seven new stones. According to The New York Times, the ban, passed in a secret ballot vote of 13-6, was proposed by councilors from the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD; the center-right Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz; and a small alliance of local independents.

This is what antisemitism looks like. It is not about Gaza. It is about Holocaust denial and Holocaust ignorance and the resurgence of the ugliness of antisemitism. And while Heidenau is a small town -- with a population of only 16,500 -- the ban's supporters are important and influential.

The AfD has become a powerful force in German politics. It openly opposes German efforts to address the country's Nazi past and its murder of 6 million Jews. It considers Germany's culture of remembrance as a "cult of guilt" -- and has campaigned on that issue. Its leaders openly use Nazi slogans and dismiss the significance of the Holocaust. And its influence -- and its message -- is spreading.

The AfD, once a fringe party, is topping national polls. The party enjoyed a significant victory this month in a regional election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where it is now trying to form a ruling coalition that would make it the first far-right party to rule a German state since the Nazis.

In a statement, the Heidenau councilors said their intention was to "prevent people from stepping directly on elements of the memorial." They said they would create some kind of memorial at a local cemetery. But the very point of the stones was to bring Holocaust memory into daily life.

"I see this as an attempt to prevent individual memorials from appearing in the public landscape," Anne Nietschke, the activist who had applied to install the stumbling stones in Heidenau, told a public TV station. "It's simply a way to banish any kind of memorial to the outskirts of the city."

Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, an international group that works to preserve the memory of Holocaust victims, was blunter. "This is a transparent and despicable attempt to once again drive the victims of the Nazis in Heidenau out of the city and dispose of them where, in the AfD's view, remembrance has long belonged: in the cemetery."

Antisemitism has surged to historic levels globally following the October 2023 Middle East conflict; in the United States, the Anti-Defamation League reported a 361% surge in antisemitic incidents immediately following October 2023, with surveys showing roughly one-third of U.S. Jews targeted and over half altering their public behavior. An April 2026 report from Tel Aviv University noted that severe antisemitic violence globally resulted in 20 fatalities across 2025, marking the highest number of victims in over three decades. UNESCO reports that online platforms and social media heavily amplify Holocaust denial, distortion, and hate speech, impacting younger demographics in classrooms and public spaces.

The resurgence of Holocaust denial and blatant antisemitism is not limited to a small town in Germany. It is a cancer that is spreading. For all its flaws, this is why we need Israel.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.