Police in Berlin were investigating the theft of several small memorials embedded in sidewalks that pay tribute to victims of the Holocaust.

Police said Monday that residents in the central Neukoelln district reported the small memorials missing from several streets.

The project was initiated in 1996 by artist Gunter Demnig, and seeks to bring back the names of Jews and others to places where they once lived. Each square plaque carries the name of the victim and information like when they were deported and where they were killed.

More than 60,000 of the memorials can be found across Germany and Europe.

Nazi Germany murdered 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, along with homosexuals, Roma, the disabled, political opponents and others.