On the 80th anniversary

Cleaning campaign for Stolpersteine starts in the city

"Salzburg shines 517 times" on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation from National Socialism.(Bild: Andreas Tröster)

Today, 517 Stolpersteine in the city of Salzburg commemorate victims of National Socialism in places where people once lived or worked. However, the small stone cubes with brass plaques embedded in the ground not only accumulate dirt over time, the surface also oxidizes and becomes cloudy when exposed to moisture. 

A campaign is now calling on all residents of the city to make the stones shine again by the 80th anniversary of the liberation from the Nazi regime on May 4. "Salzburg shines 517 times" kicks off today, Wednesday. The initiators have not only published cleaning instructions. The cleaning of the Stolpersteine is also to be documented with before and after pictures and the photos sent in. The same applies to damaged Stolpersteine.

"Residents clean the stones in their residential areas, schoolchildren clean those around their schools and non-governmental organizations clean those that are connected to their commitment," said the organizations behind the campaign - the Stolpersteine Committee, the Social Democratic Freedom Fighters and the Concentration Camp Association. "This goes hand in hand with a direct, personal commemoration and remembrance of the victims of Nazi terror."

Shot shortly before liberation
The campaign is supported by the City of Salzburg and an outdoor advertising agency. In Salzburg, the Stolpersteine commemorate Jews, people in the political resistance, Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and people with mental disabilities who were murdered or expelled by the Nazi machinery.

On May 4, 1945, the 3rd US Infantry Division took over the provincial capital of Salzburg without a fight. This marked the end of the world war started by the National Socialists, at least in Salzburg. Literally in the last minutes before the US army arrived, the SS murdered the Ukrainian forced laborer Michael Kharchenko in the Volksgarten with shots to the back, head and heart. The 31-year-old Kharchenko was the last known victim and is commemorated by a stumbling stone laid in Salzburg's Volksgarten.