The Sariñena brothers were republicans who first went into exile in France, fleeing fascism, where they were interned in camps for foreigners until 1940, when they were detained by the Nazis. They were transferred to Belfort (France), Fallingbostel and Mauthausen (Germany). The three of them were transferred to the Güsen camp, where they died between 1941 and 1942.

Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks) are small blocks of cement with brass plaque on them, laid in front of homes where people lived who were persecuted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. The goal is to remember these victims and give visibility in public space to the history of the persecution. They are micromonuments, a paving stone for us to come across in our daily lives with the premise of “one block, one name”. They take on a new dimension with the quantity of existing blocks: there are currently over 70,000 Stolpersteine around twenty countries, making them the world’s biggest decentralised monument in the world to remember the victims of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime.

Started in 2021, the educational project Stolpersteine Barcelona is aimed at secondary schools, mainly at students in their final year of mandatory secondary education or in sixth form. During the academic year, the participating students carry out research and develop the biographies of those from the city who were deported, working in conjunction with leading memory organisations. The activity concludes with memory acts to lay the stones before the homes of those who were deported. This year will see 13 of these bocks laid in Barcelona, bringing the city’s total to 42 Solpersteine in June.

The project fosters memory about people from Barcelona who were deported, a fact that most people are often unaware of, and offers an understanding of the historical dimension of concentration and extermination camps. Stolpersteine Barcelona is a collaboration between the Education Consortium, the Councillor’s Office for Democratic Memory at Barcelona City Council and the organisations Amical de Mauthausen and Amical de Ravensbrück.