stumbling stones/pietre d’inciampo
Passare
da una pietra d’inciampo all’altra
un quadratino dorato
incastonato nell’asfalto puntinato del marciapiede
Un nome
La vita di una persona
distillata, compressa
nelle lettere incise nell’ottone
nascita, cattura, morte - per assassinio - lager
Qui
“Hier stehe ich”
disse qualcuno secoli fa
irremovibile
Qui
un puntino tra gli innumerevoli puntini
nell’universo
L’immensa energia del Big Bang
concentrata
per l’eternità in questo punto insignificante
Ah!
se questa pietra d’inciampo
potesse parlare
come il violoncello nel concerto di
Dvořák
che si esalta
sale e poi scende
implora
geme
sale verso il cielo
Non sei sola
trasportata dai trilli del flauto
dalle onde dei violini
dalle nostre lacrime
Qui
in pace
Antonin Dvořák, Concerto for cello and orchestra n. 2 in B minor, op. 104
“Here I stand/Resto qui”, Martin Luther, 1521
Torino, 4 February 2025
Walking
from one stumbling stone to the next
a small golden square
nestled in the speckled asph
alt of the sidewalk
A name
Someone’s life
distilled, compressed
in the characters carved in brass
birth, capture, death - by
assassination - lager
A here
“Hier stehe Ich”
someone said centuries ago
undeterred
This here
among all the countless dots in the
universe
The immense energy of the Big Bang
converging
to mold this inconspuous dot forever
If only
this stumbling stone
could speak
like the cello in Dvořák’s concerto
elation
ebbing and flowing
pleading
wailing
rise to the stars
You are not alone
carried by the thrills of the flute
the waves of the strings
our tears
Here
at rest
singularity/singolarità
shared space/spazio condiviso
arrival at the lager/arrivo al lager
in the lager/nel lager
the crematorium/il forno crematorio
attempt to escape/tentativo di fuga
the drowned/i sommersi
sent up in smoke/mandati in fumo
falling stars/stelle cadenti
suspended place/luogo sospeso
left behind/lasciato indietro
the passer by/la passante
ghosts/fantasmi
shopping/le compere
nuova vita/new life
stumbling/l'inciampo
shelf life/durata di conservazione
the saved/i salvati
The project Pietre d’inciampo (Stolpersteine, stumbling stones) was inspired by the recent celebration of the giorno
della memoria in Italy, and by the genocidal war of Israel against Hamas in Gaza, which has exterminated so many
civilians. A recent open call for a photography show, Lieu-Non Lieu / I non luoghi della mente led me to think of le
pietre d’inciampo as an exemplary encounter of lieu and non-lieu. The stones are themselves concrete and specific
places, the only reconstructions of the real places where Jews lived before their deportation to the non-place by
definition, the German lager. A recent rereading of Primo Levi reminded me that the Nazis not only exterminated
Jews, homosexuals, Roma, and political opponents en masse,at times swiftly and at other times slowly, but created
an alternative world, where values, moral principles, and human behavior were turned upside down. In that world
the prisoners’ only hope of survival lay in conforming to that inversion, while waiting for their final transfer to
the crematory. The stones thus embody the not-being-in-any-place of the victims, except for their
being-in-our-memory.
I took the images you see here in 2025 in Turin, where I live.