Milan, 27 February 2023 – There are sixteen Stumbling Stones, placed in front of the door of the last residence where the victims of the Nazi-fascist persecution had lived as free women and men, who will be taken care of by girls and boys, girls and boys of some schools in Municipality 2.
The project, the first of its kind, involves students in the protection of the precious square blocks covered in brass and commits them to spreading knowledge of the darkest period in recent history, telling the legacy they bear to their peers and to their families, in a continuous and virtuous passing of the baton so as to never forget.
The first collaboration agreement for the care and valorisation of the Stumbling Stones located near the school buildings of Municipality 2, between the Municipality of Milan, Stumbling Stones Committee, “Simona Giorgi” school (formerly Ciresola), “Francesco Cappelli” (formerly Giacosa), “Italo Calvino”, “San Giuseppe - La Salle” institutes and “Giosuè Carducci” classical high school.
The idea of the Stolpersteine, Stumbling Stones in German, was born in Germany at the end of the nineties on the initiative of the artist Gunter Demnig with the desire to "bring home" the victims of Nazi horror, persecuted and killed for reasons racial, political, religious, and the aim of counteracting denialism and oblivion. Today this project has been transformed into a real open-air museum, which has over 90 thousand stones placed throughout Europe, capable of telling the story of the extermination that millions of people have suffered, lives torn and then broken, through a simple gesture like that of an emotional 'stumble' in Memory.
In Milan, on the initiative of the Committee for Stumbling Stones, of which Senator for life Liliana Segre is Honorary President, from the first six stones in January 2017, with the last ones to be laid in March, 171 'stumbling blocks' will be counted on the streets of the city.
“It is with great joy and a strong sense of responsibility that today we signed this important collaboration agreement – declares the councilor for civic services with responsibility for Participation Gaia Romani -. Only a month ago, Senator Segre warned us about the risk that the horror of the Shoah could become just a line in the history books in the near future. This is why bringing children and young people ever closer to the knowledge and sense of memory becomes essential, I would say vital. Guarding and protecting what are small but priceless monuments means restoring the dignity of human beings to those who were barbarically deprived and killed of it, and reflecting on the abyss of the extermination camps and racial hatred, so that what happened cannot return never again".
“The duty of Memory – states the President of Municipality 2 Simone Locatelli – is a collective responsibility to guarantee dignity to each innocent victim, but it is also a stimulus towards the younger generations, to help them understand and not forget. This collaboration agreement, signed with schools of different types and levels of our Municipality, and thanks to which the boys and girls of our schools will be able to actively take care of the Stumbling Stones, is a way to respond to the duty to remember . I hope that other schools in our area can join the pact, which remains open to new subscriptions".
"A collaboration pact that is a virtuous and necessary alliance between students and schools, institutions and associations that share the commitment to a shared memory, to the memory of every single life sacrificed in a past that is part of our History. Each of us chooses to be an active part in a path that I trust will be able to embrace all the municipalities of the city - underlined the Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Education Anna Scavuzzo - This is how, together, we want to face this time in which we are witnessing episodes that we would like never see again, and who ask us to respond with a unanimous and shared rejection of any type of violence, physical and verbal. We don't want to delegate this responsibility to you guys, but we are happy that you are willing to share it with us to make the memory of those who sacrificed their lives in the past for freedom, the dignity of every person and democracy, people we do not want to forget and who have made us freer and stronger today".
The purposes indicated in the signed Pact are the adoption of the Stumbling Stones closest to the school buildings by the students of the institutes involved in the project; the protection, care and valorisation of stones through the promotion of educational activities aimed at spreading knowledge and memory.
Inside Town Hall 2, the Stumbling Stones are those in via Boscovich 30, via Cappellini 16, via Ponte Seveso 19, via Bizzoni 7, viale Monza 90, via Padova 100, via Oxilia 13, via Oxilia 21, via Battaglia 41, viale Monza 23, via Atene 3 and via Abbadesse 25 (the latter two will be laid on Monday 6 March), in memory of Gino Emanuele Neppi, Arturo Colombo, Carlo Ferretti, Odorico Piperno, Livia Sinigaglia Piperno, Rambaldo Piperno, Renzo Piperno , Olga Revere, Ines Revere, Dante Villa, Romano Perelli, Giuseppe Ceccatelli, Ugo Milla, Angelo Aglieri, Ambrogio Campi and Mario Madè.
