Cleaning campaign for Chemnitz stumbling blocks
Call by the AG Stolpersteine and the Buntmacher:innen on 9 November - Lichterwege project starts at 4.30 p.m. - New themed city map online
More than 250 Stolpersteine in Chemnitz commemorate the victims of National Socialism. The AG Stolpersteine and the Buntmacher:innen are calling on Tuesday, 9 November, to clean the existing Stolpersteine and thus keep the memory alive.
Anyone can do this themselves. All the locations of the stumbling blocks can be found at www.chemnitz.de/stolpersteine. A new themed city map has been created there.
The Stumbling Stones can be cleaned with a tried and tested household remedy: a flour, salt and vinegar mixture consisting of two tablespoons of flour, two tablespoons of salt and sufficient vinegar. Anyone who wants to can document their cleaning action and post it under the hashtag #KeinVerblassen (#NoFading), just like many social media users across Europe.
From 4.30 pm, the stumbling blocks will then be cleaned as part of the "Lichterwege" project and decorated with a cup of light. The Buntmacher:innen initiative wants to commemorate the atrocities of the Reichspogromnacht and the subsequent genocide of millions of Jews. This is not a centralised event; participants choose different routes throughout the city individually.
The project is supported by the Evangelical Forum, Omas gegen Rechts and numerous citizens of the city. The project is sponsored by the Local Action Plan for Democracy, Tolerance and a Cosmopolitan Chemnitz (LAP).
Anyone who discovers an illuminated stumbling block can take a photo of it themselves and post it under the hashtag #wirsindlichterwege.
Information on the Stumbling Stones project
The "Stumbling Stones" commemorate citizens of Chemnitz who were murdered, deported, expelled or driven to suicide by the National Socialists.
The ten by ten centimetre Stumbling Stones are set into the pavement in front of the house where the people being honoured had their last address. The names and life dates of the victims are engraved on the brass plate of the concrete stones. Anyone who sees them as they pass by should stumble over them in their mind, pause for a moment and read the engraving.