Press release: Vigil in Buchenwald

+++ Jews from the ‘Kufiyas in Buchenwald’ campaign hold spontaneous vigil at the former Buchenwald concentration camp despite being banned +++

On Saturday, a group of Jews from the “Kufiyas in Buchenwald” campaign—including descendants of survivors of the Nazi genocide—gathered at the memorial site of the former Buchenwald concentration camp to hold a vigil highlighting the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Previously, the Weimar Administrative Court had upheld the ban on the campaign’s vigil to honor all victims and survivors of genocide and fascism,” which had been scheduled for April 12.

“The court wanted us to hold our vigil in the city of Weimar, side by side with Zionist counterprotesters. They intended to create a situation in which Zionist and anti-Zionist groups would face off in Weimar—where the perpetrators of Buchenwald lived—in order to divert attention from the Buchenwald memorial site itself,” said Tair B., organizer of the banned vigil. “We will not play along with their game. The memorial’s management must be held accountable for its ideological support of the Israeli genocide.”

The court’s ruling came following an emergency motion filed by the campaign to challenge the assembly authority’s original ban on holding the vigil in Buchenwald. In its ruling, the Administrative Court primarily relied on the arguments of the Buchenwald Memorial Foundation, asserting that the vigil planned in Buchenwald by the “Kufiyas in Buchenwald” campaign — where speeches by descendants of Nazi genocide survivors and Jewish prayers were to be recited — violated the dignity of the victims of Buchenwald by addressing “current crimes.”

“What actually violates the dignity of our families is exploiting their history to justify Germany’s current support for Israeli war crimes,” says Thomas G., son of an Auschwitz survivor. “With their authoritarian educational work, memorial sites like Buchenwald lay the groundwork for repression against a movement that takes to the streets in Germany to protest war and genocide.”

On Saturday, a group of Jews wearing T-shirts bearing the slogans “Jews Against Genocide” and “From Buchenwald to Gaza – Resistance until Liberation” gathered at the memorial to highlight the continuity of genocidal violence. At the vigil, they drew attention to the urgency of the situation in Palestine and surrounding countries, as well as to Germany’s ongoing complicity in Zionist war crimes.

“This memorial does not mandate the prevention and recognition of genocides as they occur. Instead, it portrays German fascism and the Nazi genocide as a singular and apolitical event to justify the German state’s political and economic support for the apartheid state of Israel while it commits genocide in Palestine,” says Rachael Shapiro of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

For more information on the campaign’s demands, visit https://kufiyas-in-buchenwald.org/ (instagram: @kufiyasinbuchenwald).