They do make you stumble...

Stumbling blocks
The past is far more salient in Europe compared to the US.  Being that we are Californians living in Oregon, our day to day life generally does not include walking past anything that is more then 75 year old  with the exception of our past LA subway commutes at Campo de Cahuenga http://www.laparks.org/historic/campo-de-cahuenga.

The past here is at your feet; on cobblestone streets  or
when shopping or eating.

Just the existence of many towns or buildings are reminders of the past, there are also many distinct memorials.
There are informal memorials;

and formal memorials

Effective memorials are difficult to create.   Stolpersteine are very effective. Stolpersteine, or stumbling block are remembrances of those murdered or displaced by the holocaust. They are placed at the last chosen home, work or school- never where someone was forced to live. They are placed for individuals or whole families "reunited" by the Stolpersteine.   http://www.stolpersteine.eu/en/
It is decimating each time we stumble on the brass plaques.  You are there, in their place.

Saarbrucken

Amsterdam

Saarbrucken

Amsterdam

Freiburg, Germany- like Berlin, there were so many in this University town. 

Most of the Stopersteine are for Jews who were murdered since they were the primary group targeted but they also exist for slave laborers, the Sini, the Roma, developmentally disabled, partisans or gay people who were also targets for extermination.

German Resistance Fighters in Saarbrucken

A block from where we stay in Saarbrucken, pass about every day

Worms, Germany

Worms, Germany on the Judengasse (Jewish Alley)

Dachau, the town  and Mainz, Germany

Gengenbach, Black Forest, Germany

Heidelberg

Heidelberg

Heidelberg

Budapest, just a few among many

Munich, only on private property

We first saw them in Berlin about 10 years ago, very concentrated in the old Jewish area.  Some countries do not allow Stolperstein or have proportionately few, many of these are countries are also reluctant to reflect on their own participation/complicity in the holocaust (Romania, Croatia).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_country_that_have_stolpersteine

Some countries, Bulgaria, do not have Stolpersteine although their history is far more benign then most.
 https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/bulgaria

Even in countries where there are many throughout the country, there can be local controversy as we saw in Munich
https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/search/label/Munich.

But, with or without Stolpersteine, we did see memorials in every country and many cities.






In Split, Croatia, we did not see any Stolperstein, but we did see this plague on the ground, which describes the destruction of the synagogue during Shabbat on 1942.

This was put in place in June 12 2018, 76 years after the attack on the synagogue  "for the sake of the Split residents so that they become aware of this event that was repressed from their memory and that it must not happen again" (Mayor statement).

The plaque is also in front of the now closed (in 2017)  Morpurgo bookstore, which was the third oldest bookstore in Europe.  We stumbled across it just after visiting the Jewish cemetery and seeing  quite a few Morpurgo family member's graves.  The Morpurgos   were the owners of the book store and the store (and family) were key players in the Croatian nationalism movement in the late 1800s.


And then we saw a Stolperstein for a Morpurgo outside the synagogue in Trieste, just up the coast from Split.

Trieste, Italy

Stolpersteine, have become a constant.  Wherever we go,  we look for them, almost everywhere in Europe. Their presence or absence, in countries or cities that do not allow them, both serve as devastating memorials.