Arthur Cerf

Arthur Cerf is a Stolperstein in Leipzig, set flush into the pavement outside his former residence. This small brass plaque belongs to a wider Leipzig network of personal memorials. Created by artist Gunter Demnig, the Stolperstein brings a persecuted person’s history into everyday streets. Each marker places a persecuted person’s name in the path of ordinary pedestrians. Set before a former home, it connects the city’s present pavement with a Jewish resident’s interrupted life.

Arthur Cerf was a Jewish resident arrested during the November pogroms and deported under Nazi rule. The authorities deported him to Buchenwald concentration camp. He later fled to Cuba, where he died in exile, far from his Leipzig home. The record therefore includes exile as well as persecution. The wider project remembers people murdered, displaced, or separated from their families under Nazi rule. Local groups and volunteers maintain these memorials, sometimes leaving flowers or candles beside them. At ground level, brass keeps his name among everyday footsteps.