Germany marked Sunday, marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp, as one of the country’s former presidents warned against “radicalisation and global change to the right.”
Governor of Thurintia, Mario Voight and former German President Christian Wolf attended the ceremony in Weimar, near Buffenwald, with many people including several Holocaust survivors from all over Europe.
Voigt – the state that includes Buchenwald – called it a “place of systematic dehumanization” and said that everything that happened in the Death Camp was “designed to destroy the human spirit and dignity.”
The Butchenwald concentration camp was established in 1937. Of the nearly 300,000 prisoners held at the camp, more than 55,000 were killed by the Nazis or died on April 11, 1945 as a result of hunger or medical experiments prior to the release of the camp.
In preparation for the memorial event, Israeli officials opposed a planned memorial speech by philosopher Omri Bohm, a Holocaust survivor, known critic of the Israeli government and critic, Gaza, and urged organizers to withdraw the invitation.
Wolf has issued a harsh warning about the current global political situation and the correct change in politics that has taken Europe and most of the world by storm, comparing it to the Nazi era.
“Brutality and radicalization, and a global shift to the right, I can now make me feel uneasy — I can imagine more clearly how this happened back then,” Wolf said of the development that led to the integration of Nazi power.
He called for a positive commitment to democracy and human preservation. “We will take on a lasting, continuous, eternal responsibility from now on, as evil should never be allowed to win again.”
The former German president criticized the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, defended by the German (AFD) party’s far-right alternative.
He said those who “trivial things” the party “ignoring the fact that alternatives to German ideology create breeding grounds for people to feel uncomfortable in Germany and are in fact at real risk.”
Naphtari Fust, a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor, spoke at the Wreath Innovation Ceremony held in the camp’s previous roll call area. He spent 9-12 years in four different concentration camps, including the infamous Auschwitz.
“There are only a few left now. Soon we will give you a baton that will remind you forever, and in doing so we are entrusting you with historical responsibility,” said Fürst, who deals with the decline in Holocaust survivors.
“Remember what you learned from us on our behalf, because you are a witness,” he added.
“Back here and return to Buchenwald, where civilization has been reduced to zero. Stay vigilant in our name and in commemoration of us,” he said.
