Por Redaccion 
The Government of the Principality plans to install 63 Stolpersteine this year, adding to the 32 already placed by the regional administration. The next installation ceremony will take place on Wednesday, February 19 at 12:00 in Avilés.
In that municipality, a total of 9 cobblestones will be installed, with five commissioned by the General Directorate of Democratic Memory of the Asturian Government to the German artist Günter Demnig. These five commemorate individuals deported to concentration camps (Manuel García Rodríguez, José Ataulfo Arrojo Marqués, Galo Ramos Barril, Manuel Ángel Ramos Barril, and Belarmino Ramos Menéndez), while the other four (the family composed of Jesús Ramos Barril, Eloina Ramos Barril, Anselma Barril González, and María Luisa Ramos Barril) were commissioned by the Avilés City Council to honor victims who were on the death trains, not in concentration camps.
The cobblestones will be installed on Calle Bances Candamo, 9; the Ría Promenade; and Campo Square in San Cristóbal. A special tribute will be paid to María Luisa Ramos Barril, the only living victim who was on one of the trains.
The Stolpersteine project began in 1992 as a personal idea of the German artist Günter Demnig to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust and keep their memory alive. It is an international phenomenon that has already installed over 100,000 stones throughout Europe. The word Stolpersteine means stumbling block.
Each cobblestone bears a plaque engraved with the person’s name, date of birth, date of deportation or arrest, and date and place of death. It is usually placed in front of the victim’s birthplace or last residence.
In Asturias, the Deported Asturias Group has been the main promoter of this initiative, having compiled the names and biographies of all individuals from Asturias who were deported and interned in Nazi concentration camps. They have a blog where the biographies of these individuals can be read as a result of their research efforts.
The first Stolpersteine in the Principality were installed in collaboration with the various Asturian municipalities where there were victims of Nazism, until the General Directorate of Democratic Memory of the Principality Government subsequently committed to taking over their installation.
According to data from the Asturian Government consulted by Europa Press, a total of over 190 cobblestones will be placed by the end of the current legislature (2027) in the 48 Asturian municipalities where individuals were deported.
The municipalities with the highest number of Nazi victims are Gijón (31 deported individuals), Oviedo (21), and Mieres (19). As of the date of February 14, 32 memory stones have already been placed by the Principality Government, in addition to the 43 previously installed by the various municipalities.
Of the 65 memory stones to be installed this year by the Government of the Principality, 50 have already been received for placement in 12 municipalities. The Memory DG expects to receive the corresponding stones for another 19 pending municipalities by the end of 2025.
«Thanks to the unity of left-wing political forces, in collaboration with entities and groups working for memory, we can contribute to settling a historical debt with the victims and their families,» declared the Director General of Democratic Memory, Begoña Collado.