Overview
- The Heidenau town council voted on Thursday to bar further Stolpersteine — small brass plaques placed in sidewalks to mark the last known residences of Nazi victims — and to concentrate future remembrance at the town’s northern cemetery.
- The motion passed with support from the local Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a partnership that has drawn criticism for breaking the informal Brandmauer firewall against working with the AfD.
- Heidenau’s city administration had advised against a blanket ban, saying a townwide prohibition was unnecessary for creating a central memorial and was not justified by the proposal.
- Jewish leaders and memorial activists condemned the move, saying removing street‑level plaques risks erasing everyday reminders of victims and that cemetery‑only commemoration will change how residents and families encounter the history.
- The vote comes as the AfD leads national polls and has long questioned Germany’s forms of Holocaust remembrance, a dynamic that could widen debate about local memory practices and the CDU’s national posture under Chancellor Friedrich Merz.