Students clean Rome's 288 stolpersteine to keep memory alive.

Known as stolpersteine in German, or literally translated “stumbling stones”, the memorials have been placed across Rome since 2010 by Berlin artist Gunter Demnig.

The plaques are installed outside the last chosen place of residence of victims of the Holocaust, detailing their first and last names, date of birth, date and place of deportation, and date of death in a Nazi extermination camp.

Numerous Roman schools are taking part in Spolverare la memoria on 21 May, including the Scuola Germanica di Roma and the American Academy in Rome.

Organisers say the initiative is designed to "dust the memory" and to remember the individual names of the victims, their destinies, to counteract oblivion and to promote peaceful coexistence in the present and the future.

Held each year on 21 May, the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development celebrates the richness of the world's cultures as well as the role of intercultural dialogue for achieving peace and sustainable development.

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