I owe the following report of its activities in 2004, its first full year, to Dr. Andreas Dornheim, the deputy chairman of the Society.

The first event was a presentation by the Cologne artist Günter Demnig of his “Stolperstein” (Stumblestone) project on 

17.03.2004.

A “Stolperstein” is a brass plate, 10cm x 10cm, artistically designed, intended to remember a person for some special reason, which is mounted flush in a paving stone, usually in the side walk in front of the house he or she lived in (see also below). Reported in the Fränkischer Tag of 23.3.2004.

A members’ meeting of the Society decided tp support the proposal by Günter Demnig and to order one stumblestone to be placed in front of the house where Willy Aron lived. (Reported in the Fränkischer Tag of 02.04.2004).

17.05: Talk by Dr. Andreas Dornheim on the subject of Bamberg’s first victim of the Nazis - an approach to Willy Aron

19.05: Memorial meeting on the occasion of the 71st anniversary of the murder of Willy Aron. Talk by State Secretary Walter Kolbow.

23.09: Talk by Gerhard Rammel, 1st President of the Association of Members of the former 17th Bavarian Cavalry Regiment (in Bamberg) on the subject 20th July 1944 - Officers of the 17th Cavalry Regiment in the Resistance.

(It will be remembered, that Graf von Stauffenberg served in that regiment).

06.10: Annual General meeting of the Society, followed by a talk by Gisela Schardt, head of UNICEF in Upper Franconia on The Battle of the UN children’s’ aid-organisation against the trade in children and the exploitation of children in many countries in the World.

01.12: A talk by Senior Public Prosecutor Dr. Wabnitz (Bamberg) on - Available legal means of redress against the trade in children and children’s’ abuse in the Border areas of the European Union.

07.12: Laying of the first “Stolperstein” by the artist Günter Demnig in front of Luitpold-Straße 32, the former home of Willy Aron.

This first “Stolperstein” was sponsored by the Central Bamberg group of the Social Democratic Party.

It is intended to mount further “Stolpersteine” in front of houses where other Jewish and other victims of the Nazis lived. (Reported in the Fränkischer Tag of 08.12.2004 and the Rathaus Journal Nr. 26, of 17.12.2004).