Five of the cobblestones (known as Stolpersteine in German) were apparently dug up from outside a house in Plettenberg near Dortmund, where a Jewish family of five – including three kids – had lived until 1942, when they were sent to the notorious Treblinka concentration camp, local media reported on Sunday.

Similar incidents have happened in Germany before, with police confirming a hate motive almost every time. However, the background to this most recent removal appears to be much more mundane.

READ MORE: Holocaust victims’ memorial stones uprooted in Berlin

Last year, a local telecommunications company excavated a nearby pavement to lay an internet cable. Workers apparently dug up the cubes, but instead of reinstalling them in their original location, they brought them to a construction dump, Plettenberg Mayor Ulrich Schulte confirmed, describing the loss as "very annoying."

The firm had been advised "many times" about the remembrance cubes, Plettenberg's building director stated, but "unfortunately [this] didn't work as the stones were disposed of."

"When the damage was noticed, it was already too late," the mayor told reporters. The company in question subsequently looked for the stones but couldn't find them "even after a long search," offering a full refund instead.