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In our history, Buchenwald is not a scar that has healed; it is a wound that forever bleeds. We recall past crimes in order to prevent new ones.

Rayk Anders
Author and Blogger

Buchenwald is part of a lively, far-reaching remembrance culture. I am currently lecturing in Zimbabwe and just today gave a lecture on the active, collective-memorial engagement with National Socialist concentration and extermination camps in Germany. On hearing my presentation, my Zimbabwean listeners longed to establish a similarly vibrant, balanced, non-glossed over remembrance culture. Victims of the colonial and Mugabe regimes have no say in this matter; there are no oral testimony projects, let alone any acknowledgement for the victims. The world will never recover from the German nature. It can’t, however, forego the prominence Germany assigns to its memorial sites; one need only ask around in the aforementioned world to appreciate how just how supportive and motivating this culture of remembrance can be. Flipping it by 180 degrees would be a disaster for the victims and those coming to terms with the Matabeleland massacres alike.

Dr. Bruno Arich-Gerz
Media and Literary Scholar at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal

We are once again witnessing the rise of inhumane ideologies across Germany. Buchenwald is a place for encounters as well as a symbol of everything that we, as anti-fascists and democrats, actively strive for: a society based on human rights and solidarity.

Romy Arnold
Project Director of MOBIT in Thuringia

For me, Buchenwald is the place where grief, rage, perplexity, and confidence intermingle. Grief over the countless sorrows perpetrated on countless human beings. Rage, also toward myself, for having relativized and/or denied those crimes for so long. Perplexity as to how we should confront the emboldened radical right-wing ideologies. And yet, confidence: Young people, full of empathy, are interested in the prisoners’ everyday lives, and yes, that even for someone with a past such as mine, who for so long stood on the side of the perpetrator’s ideology, confident that I will not be rejected in Buchenwald. This is not a fight against people, but rather against forgetting.

Felix Benneckenstein
Former neo-Nazi and mentor to those opting out, Initiative EXIT-Deutschland

Buchenwald is at once a reminder and warning; it calls us to take a stance, and above all to embody that stance. To defend our fragile democracy and our human rights against all those who despise, abuse, or trample upon them.

Iris Berben
Actress

The Buchenwald Memorial is both a place for remembrance, a monument, and an educational site. That we never forget those who sacrificed their lives here; that we do our utmost to ensure that people never again inflict on each other what they inflicted on each other here; that we conserve the knowledge of what happened here and transmit it to our children –– that's why the Memorial is important. Buchenwald is not and will never be dispensable!

Jan Böhmermann
Satirist, Journalist, and Television Presenter

Prof. Dr. Włodzimierz Borodziej
Historian of Contemporary History, Warsaw

The Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex and its satellite camps were liberated seventy-five years ago. In addition to commemorating the liberation of one of the most evil hells this Earth has ever seen, the occasion equally reminds us of those who could not escape the Inferno. I am deeply upset by the fact that the commemoration at the Dora concentration camp, at which many overseas guests were due to attend, had to be cancelled. In their midst are perhaps some survivors for whom this occasion would have been the last chance to visit this site.

Kai Buchmann
Mayor of Nordhausen

Pandemic times – in the virologic as well as political sense – call for signs of democratic steadfastness. To commemorate the victory over National Socialism and the liberation of places of terror such as Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora seventy-five years ago signifies not least to ultimately confront head on the rampant right-wing populism and right-wing radicalism with all the might and the inherent potential of a free society.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Frei
Chair of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Jena

For me, Mittelbau-Dora is now a place for commitment to democracy and humanity, to the rule of law and solidarity. In the camps at the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex, the perpetrators interned and killed human beings, whilst many others looked on, profited from, or participated in the proceedings. Given that I want to live in a society that has learned from these crimes and takes a stance against racism, exclusion, and intolerance, I am personally committed.

Katharina Friedek
Chairwoman of Youth for Dora

Invariably, dictatorial rule goes hand in hand with oppression and leads to society being brutalized. To come to terms with Buchenwald as a site for National Socialist tyranny enables us to identify anti-democratic and misanthropic thinking at an early stage, and to understand the consequences of such attitudes.

Prof. Dr. Jörg Ganzenmüller
Chairman of the Ettersberg Foundation

Buchenwald is a deep, painful wound; in the histories of those families who perished there or who painfully survived the camp, in the history of Weimar and of our country; it is also a wound in the landscape. This wound can never heal, at best over time, through every act of remembrance, through every visit, it will develop a scar. And the pain of that wound will endure, as it inevitably must.

Timo Gothe
Priest in the Herz Jesu Catholic Parish, Weimar

The 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp is a grave commemoration that is more urgent than ever. The corona pandemic has prevented us from partaking in valuable personal encounters with the survivors. Hence, it is all the more urgent to raise public awareness concerning this anniversary, to commemorate, to remember and to remind ourselves of the victims, as well as to advocate for an open, democratic society!

Matthias Jendricke
District Chief Executive Nordhausen

Although every liberation represents a salvation, no liberation ensures salvation in its entirety, and accordingly with every liberation comes a mission. The liberation of the concentration camps has been documented; much has been reported, written, and discussed about the disastrous repercussions. I see my mission as to listen to the victims of the camps and their descendants in order to constantly come to a better understanding, in order to contribute to the relief of their plights through mutual exchanges, and to counteract with the utmost vigilance an already crude repetition of history.

Daniel Klajner
Artistic Director of the Theater Nordhausen

The evolution of the international – and notably the German –– culture of remembrance requires authentic sites. Whenever we reach the point that contemporary witnesses can no longer be asked, we will then require accurate presentation and transmission, as well as the possibility to sensitively perceive definitive historical sites.

Peter Kleine
Mayor of Weimar

In the 1980s, I visited Buchenwald as part of the Aktion Sühnezeichen [Action for Reconciliation]; I was thus able to speak with contemporary witnesses and to experience many evocative things. I later became aware of the Special Camp No.2 at Buchenwald. Suffering defies calculation. The 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp is a warning to us: Resist the onset of tyranny and oppression!

Friedrich Kramer
Regional Bishop of the Protestant Churches in Central Germany

Buchenwald exposes us to the hell the victims of the Nazi regime were thrown into, as well as to the utter depths of cruelty that the perpetrators, thrilled by their own inhumanity, resorted. Ultimately, sites such Buchenwald call on us to combat not least those forces that seek to relativize the value of humanity. As can be clearly seen these days, the motto “nip it in the bud” has become terribly relevant.

Stephan J. Kramer
President of the Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution

We will step up to the task and ultimately ensure that the legacy of those murdered and the survivors never be forgotten. We are doing this for those former inmates who can no longer participate in the commemorative service, and of course for future generations as well.

Jutta Krauth
Lady Mayor of Nordhausen

The commemoration of the liberation of the concentration camps is not a ritual; rather, it is a reminder and an assignment for the future. A warning-call of where an ethno-centred ideology will lead, an ideology that through a process of rejection classifies people according to their religion, origin, gender or ancestry, an ideology that treats them as aliens and that excludes. It is moreover an assignment that this worldview should never again be allowed to gain foothold in Germany. This is precisely the danger we face today - with the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), and notably with those party members linked to Björn Höcke’s Flügel, the faction within that party who are seeking to undermine our democracy from within on the basis of his racist ideas. Thuringia is living proof of this development. Höcke’s faction has been placed under surveillance––and rightly so–by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Höcke should be legally designated a "fascist." And hence there can only be one assignment from the commemoration: Outright rejection of any form of cooperation or collaboration with the AfD. Outright rejection of this inhuman body of thought. To these wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
former Federal Minister of Justice, Member of the Executive Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

Buchenwald represents an increasingly relevant fundamental warning the farther removed we are from those historic National Socialist crimes against humanity. "Never again!" should not become a hollow appeal. What is called for is vigilance, commitment, and solidarity, now and in the future.

Dr. Ulrike Lorenz
President of the Classical Foundation Weimar

Remembrance Days, such as this one in Buchenwald, are days for mourning and for shame. Yet, they are also days for hope. They strengthen our determination to nip things in the bud, as well as to preserve and defend the inviolable dignity of every human being. Now and at all times.

Franz Müntefering
former Vice-Chancellor, Honorary President of the German Workers' Samaritan Federation

For me, coming from Thuringia, Buchenwald is synonymous with the National Socialist’s rule of terror, treacherous ideology, and endless suffering. The camp complex is a structural testimony to unimaginable persecution and an extermination machine that could emerge in the immediate vicinity of Weimar, the meeting place that gave its name to the first republic of Germany achieved at a national level. Hence, Buchenwald is not alone a site steeped in history, but also a warning that links and past and present, which, thanks to the memorial's outstanding scientific and educational policy work, is of paramount importance for present and future generations. In a certain sense, Buchenwald is also a place of triumph. If, even today, seventy-five years after the camp's liberation and the end of the war, former prisoners come back to the camp on a visit or for commemorative events, they send us a vital signal: They survived, they survived THAT. And, they can bear witness to what they lived through in the camp.

André Neumann
Mayor of Altenburg

For me, the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials are places of warning in which democracy, humanity, and tolerance must overcome contempt for human beings, nationalism, and anti-Semitism. For me, they also mean that historical facts must not be suppressed or distorted.

Dr. Ulrich Neymeyr
Bishop of Erfurt

For me, Buchenwald constitutes a warning-call: this can happen again if we don't want to see what everyone could see back then and what everyone can see today. If we don't want to see how right-wing radicals are now making ready and wielding fresh violence by railing on about alleged self-defence and about losing Volksteile [segments of the population] ––just as Höcke has been insisting. If we don't want to see how such thinking is initially utterable and subsequently becomes reality on account of false tolerance: This is not because right-wing radicals are so strong today, but rather because certain Democrats are too selfish or ignorant to stand-up to the right-wing threat, which back then and right now is entrenching itself in the social core of mainstream society. Whoever, seventy-five years on from the liberation of Buchenwald, makes right-wing radicals socially acceptable and abets them in their grab for power is acting more morally reprehensibly than those whose actions ended in war and extermination, for today's voters and lackeys already know from history where their actions can lead.

Dr. Matthias Quent
Director of the Institute for Democracy und Civil Society (IDZ), Jena

Seventy-five years ago, American GIs liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp. Today, Buchenwald symbolises that rupture in civilization, as embodied by the Holocaust, a rupture that involved the lives of 500,000 Sinti and Roma. The remembrance of such unprecedented human criminality always entails active responsibility for the present; it has nothing to do with transferring guilt to future generations. Particularly at this juncture when right-wing populists are seeking to divide our society and that anti-Gypsy, anti-Semitic and racist ideas are turning into violent acts, each and every one of us must assume our responsibility in defending the rule of law and our democracy, all of which have ensured us more than seventy years of inner and outer peace.

Romani Rose
Chairperson of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma

Buchenwald - site of the Shoah, where humans became wolves toward fellow humans Today Buchenwald is a thorn and a wake-up call: Nip it in the bud - let’s not allow ethnic-laden thinking become socially acceptable again; let’s take action whenever others are bullied, harassed and persecuted in our midst.

Annette Schavan
former Federal Minister for Education and Research, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ).

After the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated seventy-five years ago, the survivors pledged on 19 April 1945 as part of a mourning act for their murdered fellow-inmates: Our watchword is the destruction of Nazism from its roots. Our goal is to build a new world in peace and freedom. We owe that to our murdered comrades and their relatives. This moral responsibility must endure as the binding consensus in German society. Above all, it contains the all-important obligation to critically examine our own past and to make an unwavering, courageous commitment to democracy, freedom, and universal human rights.

Carsten Schneider
Member of the Bundestag, Chairman of the SPD’s national parliamentary group

1945: The liberation of the concentration camp at Buchenwald heralded the impending victory over Nazi terror. The survivors pledged to ensure “the destruction of Nazism from its roots.” 2020–seventy-five years later: The AfD relativizes Nazi crimes. The Thuringian AfD has exploited and made a mockery of democratic rules, and was even to become the decisive force in electing Thuringia’s First Minister. Street protests ensued across Thuringia, forcing him to resign. The warning from the Buchenwald survivors prevails over historical amnesia, indifference, and right-wing extremism.

Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schramm
Chairperson of the Jewish Landesgemeinde in Thuringia

Given my family background, Buchenwald will always have a special meaning for me: both my father and grandfather were interned in the concentration camp there. When thinking of Buchenwald, I also reflect on the Memorial Site's outstanding and significant work: it explains the history of this site all while keeping those memories alive. We must never forget what has happened here. This responsibility remains in force for future generations.

Dr. Josef Schuster
President of the Jewish Central Council in Germany

Buchenwald, back then as now, is an indispensable reminder within earshot of that German cultural symbol–– Weimar. It is living proof that evil does not just come into our midst from elsewhere, but rather takes hold amidst civilized normality as soon as the first taboo is accepted with indifference. If it is true that indifference is our morality’s weak point, then we have to attack amnesia, the temporal extension of indifference. The struggle for remembrance is a struggle for humanity.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Stölzl
President of the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar

Amidst this most far-reaching insecurity facing all societies worldwide, it is paramount to preserve our experiences from history and the values and rules derived therefrom as the fundamental basis for our community. For me, in Weimar this primarily includes the Buchenwald complex.

Hasko Weber
Director-General of the German National Theatre Weimar (DNT)