Seventy years since the end of World War II, the City of Munich and the Free State of Bavaria, as many other parts of Germany, still have many open issues regarding the Nazi past to face. Two of those issues have featured prominently in German and worldwide media recently.

Stolpersteine

The first are the so called “Stolpersteine” (stumbling stones, as the ones in above photo), metal plates set on the pavement in front of the last known residences of people who were killed during the Holocaust. Those people are remembered by their names being written on the plates. Such plates have been installed troughout 20 countries and in hundreds of German municipalities, there are about 55.000 of them in total. But none of them are in Munich. Parts of the Jewish community of the city are opposed to Stolpersteine in Munich because they feel they are “dishonourable and impious. According to them, stepping on them reminds of soldiers stepping on people in concentration camps. That is why Munich hasn’t allowed Stolpersteine thus far, and remains to be the only major German city without them.

A group of Jewish citizens of Munich, supported by other Nazi victims, such as the LGBTI community and the Sinti and Roma, are now trying to force the City to allow victims to be remembered by the plates by lawsuit.

Artwork Looted by Nazis in Bavarian Museums?

Spiegel.de, amongst others, reports about a letter signed by 29 US Congress members and sent to the Bavarian government with the demand to facilitate talks between the state’s museums and Jewish families who suspect the museums of harbouring art looted by the Nazi Regime. Bavaria had promised to reunite the works of art with their Jewish owners, but to realize this commitment would need "greater dialogue and cooperation" the letter read. The letter was sent a few weeks ago, and so far the Bavarian State Chancellery has only confirmed it had received the Americans' letter. You can read the full story at Spiegel.de.