10 MORE LIES GERMANS WERE TOLD & 10 LIES YOU ARE BEING TOLD

Here, I mention my academic writing. If you want to delve into that part of my work, please scroll to the beginning of my account here where you’ll find a 10-part series entitled, “Stumbling Blocks…”

That title comes from the German “Stolpersteine” (“stumbling stones”), which are small memorial cobblestones or concrete cubes as you find in many European streets, like those throughout the German village where I live. In the upper surface there is an embedded brass plate engraved with the name and life dates of someone who was persecuted, deported, murdered, driven to suicide — or who survived — under Nazi rule. The “Stolpersteine” are the life project of artist Gunther Demnig, and are set into sidewalks or cobblestones in front of the home of the victim. There are 116,000 of them spread across 26 countries. I’ve tracked hundreds of them.

Having lived for nearly 35 years across the EU and Scandinavia (with additional years spent in Asia), I’ve been surrounded by or confronted with Stolpersteine every day. In other words, beyond having visited the many memorials and landmarks, the museums and plaques, the camps and battlefields, the deportation points and cemeteries commemorating one of the darkest chapters of modern history, I literally tread atop these narratives every single day.

I am an author. A researcher. And a humanitarian. As such, I’ve merged my academic background with the ground beneath my feet. German studies (language, literature, history) and Journalism are my discipline; Human history and its repeating patterns are my daily walk.

As I watch my native home — the USA— sink into a similar fate that swallowed whole the democracy of my current home — central Germany — I am fighting. My weapons are knowledge, writing, speaking and organizing.

I hope to find you daily either here or on Instagram, where I have posted over 400 reels this year, reels that seeks to draw arcs between Germany and the USA, interlacing the flashpoints from the last century with the wildfires of our current reality.

Watch for upcoming conversations — split-screen exchanges with other educators of history and politics; podcasts where I’ve been invited as a guest — and other news, including my expanding platforms and my next book project.

I’m glad you’re here.

I’ll be back.