A woman who broke her toe tripping over a Holocaust memorial tribute is suing city officials in Austria.
The 58-year-old dog walker says she was left in agony after falling over a 'stumble stone', or 'stolperstein' designed to make people remember World War II's death camp victims.
The stones, spread all over Europe, are engraved with the names of people murdered in Nazi concentration camps and set outside the homes or workplaces they were snatched from.
Picture shows Manuela G. at the scene of the accident with her dog in Salzburg, Austria, undated. She twisted her ankle last September. Note: Image is a screenshot from an X post. (Newsflash/NX)
Slightly raised and topped with a bronze plaque, they are designed to make walkers stumble slightly on them and then look down to read the engraving.
Now peeved Manuela G. is suing Town Hall officials in Salzburg after tripping over one of the stones eight months ago (Nov 2024).
She claims she was visiting her mum when she slipped on a group of stumble stones partially hidden by fallen leaves.
She said: "I broke the fifth metatarsal in my left foot and also had a gash on my knee. It really hurt."
Picture shows Gunter Demnig, Stumbling Stones Artist, undated. Note: Archive photo Europics. (Newsflash/NX)
After hobbling to hospital, she claims, surgeons told her they had to operate on the toe immediately.
She told local media: "I couldn’t even put on my shoe. The doctor said we had to operate straight away."
Manuela says she spent three weeks on crutches and developed thrombosis, which had to be treated with injections for two months.
She said: "I couldn’t do anything, not even walk my dogs. I ended up with depression."
The Stolperstein project was launched by German artist Gunter Demnig in the 1990s and aims to jolt passersby into remembering the six million Holocaust victims.
Picture shows Gunter Demnig, Stumbling Stones Artist, undated. Note: Archive photo Europics. (Newsflash/NX)
Each bronze-capped cobblestone is inscribed with the name and fate of a victim, and placed outside their former homes, schools or workplaces.
There are now more than 100,000 Stolperstein in 30 countries, making it the world’s largest decentralised Holocaust memorial.
One of those in Salzburg commemorates Adolf Graber, a Jewish man deported to Auschwitz and murdered by the Nazis.
In Germany, another recent stone was laid for Mahjub bin Adam Mohammed, a Tanzanian-born man who was imprisoned and killed by the Nazis for being black.
A caption about his stone read: "In the vast, agonising mosaic of the Nazi Holocaust Mahjub bin Adam Mohammed was simply one more piece, one of millions without a funeral and without a grave when his brutal end came.
In the vast, agonising mosaic of the Nazi Holocaust Mahjub bin Adam Mohammed was simply one more piece, one of millions without a funeral and without a grave when his brutal end came. But now Mahjub is set to make history in Germany by becoming the first black man to be honoured as a single victim of the genocide of the Third Reich. He is to get a 'Stolperstein' in his name - a raised bronze tablet on the ground outside the house where he lived in Berlin. The memorial has to be stepped round by pedestrians, and its aim is to let future generations know how the Nazi extermination programme did not only target Jews and political enemies. Note: Archive photo Europics. (Newsflash/NX)
"But now Mahjub is set to make history in Germany by becoming the first black man to be honoured as a single victim of the genocide of the Third Reich.
"He is to get a 'Stolperstein' in his name - a raised bronze tablet on the ground outside the house where he lived in Berlin."
In the vast, agonising mosaic of the Nazi Holocaust Mahjub bin Adam Mohammed was simply one more piece, one of millions without a funeral and without a grave when his brutal end came. But now Mahjub is set to make history in Germany by becoming the first black man to be honoured as a single victim of the genocide of the Third Reich. He is to get a 'Stolperstein' in his name - a raised bronze tablet on the ground outside the house where he lived in Berlin. The memorial has to be stepped round by pedestrians, and its aim is to let future generations know how the Nazi extermination programme did not only target Jews and political enemies. Note: Archive photo Europics. (Newsflash/NX)
Austria was one of the most enthusiastic Nazi supporters in Europe following its 1938 union with Adolf Hitler's Germany, known as the Anschluss, or connection.
Within two years Austria, where Hitler was born, had sent more than 70,000 Jews to death camps while a further 125,000 fled the country.
Modern-day Austrian critics of the memorial stones clash sharply with Jewish leaders and human rights groups across Europe.
(MJ Leidig/newsX)