"In European cities, it is not uncommon to see groups kneeling on sidewalks cleaning Stolpersteine. Using brass cleaner, rags, sponges, and water, they restore the dirty and dull “stumbling stones” commemorating Holocaust victims and survivors to their original bright and shiny state.

These university students and young professionals are volunteers with Make Their Memory Shine (MTMS), a grassroots volunteer organization founded in April 2021 to combine Holocaust commemoration and education with bringing together people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds to meet and learn from one another.

Thus far, MTMS has held Stolpersteine cleaning events in more than 45 cities in 16 countries across Europe — from Sweden in the north to Italy in the south, and from Spain in the west to Moldova in the east.

“Our goal is to clean all 90,000 Stolpersteine,” MTMS founder Ethan Gabriel Bergman, 23, told The Times of Israel.

German artist Gunter Demnig began designing and installing Stolpersteine in the 1990s. The stumbling stones are 10-centimeter (4-inch) concrete cubes covered by a brass plate inscribed with the name and details of a Holocaust victim or survivor. The stones are placed in front of the individual’s last known residence or workplace. There are Stolpersteine in more than 1,200 localities in Europe."

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-grassroots-effort-young-europeans-clean-stumbling-stones-to-gleam-like-beacons/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2023-04-18&utm_medium=email