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= Foundation Stones = Foundation Stones is a creative commemorative project run by Big Ideas in partnership with the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation.

Foundation Stones invites participants to paint a small stone in remembrance of the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust and all other victims of Nazi persecution. The Nazis enslaved and murdered millions of others including Roma and Sinti, members of the LGBT community, people with physical and mental disabilities and political opponents. Participants can also choose to dedicate their stones to those murdered in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

The Government, with cross-party support, has committed to build a new national Memorial to the Holocaust with a Learning Centre in Westminster. The Memorial will stand as a reminder to all in Parliament, and the whole nation, of their responsibility to remain vigilant against intolerance and bigotry.

Painted Foundation Stones will be laid within the foundations of the new UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. Each stone represents a commitment from individuals and communities across the United Kingdom to learn from the past and to build a future free from all forms of prejudice, discrimination and hatred.

Objective
The objective of this project is to raise public awareness about the Holocaust and the British experience and to encourage people to find local links to the Holocaust in their area to better understand its impact in Britain. The UK took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Nazi-occupied Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, schools and farms.

Significance of using stones
The Foundation Stones project is inspired by the Jewish tradition of placing small stones on headstones when visiting a grave. As Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirgis explains, ‘placing stones in memory of the dead is an ancient tradition based around the permanence of a stone which will always remain, and here reminds us that the memory and legacy of those who perished in the Holocaust will endure forever. The incorporation of these stones, from around the country into the foundation of the new centre will be a powerful and deeply symbolic act’.

Crystal Palace Football Club
On 25th October 2019, Under 13s at Crystal Palace FC Academy designed and painted Foundation Stones. The players also met historian and author David Bolchover who spoke to them about Béla Guttmann, who was a Hungarian footballer and Coach who survived the Holocaust.

Chelsea Football Club
On the 23 October 2019, Big Ideas ran a Foundation Stones workshop with a group of U15 academy players from Chelsea FC. The players learned about the Holocaust and the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. They also had the opportunity to meet Ivor Perl, who is a Holocaust Survivor. Inspired by Perl’s experiences, the players painted Foundation Stones in remembrance of those murdered in the Holocaust.

Holocaust Memorial Tournament
The U15s then took part in an international tournament in Czech Republic with Academy teams from Hertha Berlin, Legia Warsaw and Banik Ostrava. All teams painted Foundation Stones and took part in an educational visit to Auschwitz Birkenhau. Their stones were laid in an informal ceremony at the site of the death camp and were then brought back to the UK to be placed in the foundations of the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre when it is built.

Commemorative Mural
On 15 January 2020, Chelsea FC unveiled a commemorative mural of Jewish football players and British POWs, which has been painted by street artist Solomon Souza, as part of the club’s Say No to Antisemitism campaign, funded by club owner Roman Abramovich. Guests, including Chelsea players, Cesar Azpilicueta, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Anita Asant, took part in the Foundation Stones project as part of the event.

Anne Frank Trust
On the 75th Anniversary of the day when Anne Frank and her family were arrested and sent to Auschwitz, Tim Robertson - the Chief Executive of the Anne Frank Trust UK - painted a foundation stone in their memory. The stone features a never-ending train track. Robertson explained the meaning behind his stone: ‘I painted the train tracks all the way round the pebble in a loop - half wishing they had never reached Auschwitz, half hoping they are remembered endlessly’.

Holocaust Education Trust (HET)
On 1 July, HET Youth Ambassadors from across the UK painted foundation stones to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust during their Ambassador Conference 2019.

Genocide Awareness Day 2019
Over 100 pupils from 10 different secondary schools came together for Genocide Awareness Day 2019. The pupils listened to testimonies from Zigi Shipper, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Second World War, Kemal Pervanic who was imprisoned in Omarska concentration camp in Bosnia and Sophie Masereka, a survivor of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The pupils designed and painted foundations stones to close the event.

Individual Contribution
A 98-year-old woman painted a stone in remembrance of her mother who died in Auschwitz.

Noemi Lopian, who is the daughter of Holocaust survivors, painted a Foundation Stone at the UK Youth Ambassadors Conference in London. She was discussing her father’s book ‘The Long Night’ – the memoirs of Holocaust survivor Ernst Bornstein. The village of West Raynham painted over 200 foundation stones in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.

Ed Balls and Lord Pickles
Former Labour MP, Ed Balls and British Conservative politician, Lord Eric Pickles, serves as the co-chairs of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation Advisory Board. On 31st 2019, Balls and Pickles appeared on Good Morning Britain to launch the Foundation Stones campaign.

Natasha Kaplinsky
On 31 October, newsreader, TV presenter and journalist, Natasha Kaplinsky appeared as a guest on 12 BBC local radio programmes to encourage audiences to take part in the Foundation Stones project. In 2017, Natasha Kaplinsky was awarded an OBE for her extraordinary contribution to the recording of Holocaust survivor testimony. She also serves as a board member for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation.