Berlin Day 6
We started our day by making a stop at a large array of "stolperstein," which are brass plaques commemorating Jewish people who were persecuted under the Nazis. These ones were placed outside of the federal office where these people worked. These stones had been affected by time and weather, so using some basic restoration products, we cleaned each of the stones to bring them back to the original brass they once were. During this process, we read the people's names aloud, along with the years of birth and other information on the stones, including when they were forced to retire, fled the country, stripped of their German citizenship, and/or arrested. As we cleaned the stones, several people stopped to comment on or ask about what we were doing, giving us an opportunity to explain to others the importance of commemorating those who were victimized by the Nazis. ... Stolpersteine as encountered in-situ before restoration Stolpersteine post-restoration effort ... We then...