Pro-Palestinian activists exploit Buchenwald concentration camp memorial for anti-Israel protest, defying court order
'They did what they were forbidden from doing: Comparing Buchenwald with Gaza'
The German left-wing activist group “Kufiyas in Buchenwald” said it held a pro-Palestinian vigil in front of the former Buchenwald concentration camp in central Germany last Saturday, just before the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the camp by U.S. troops on April 12, 1945.
The group claimed to have held the vigil in front of the site after a court blocked a planned demonstration within the camp itself for Sunday, on the day before the start of the Jewish Yom HaShoah, the national Holocaust memorial day in Israel.
The group said it gathered “to draw attention to the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” and to shine a light on the leadership of the memorial, which must be “held accountable for its ideological support of the Israeli genocide.”
In an interview with Germany’s state media outlet MDR, the director of the site, Jens-Christian Wagner, explained that the demonstration by a group that celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, invasion in Israel would have contradicted honoring the victims of the camp.
Eighty one years ago (1945), the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany was liberated by the US Army. When the US forces arrived, they found 21,000 survivors, 1,000 of whom were children. Never forget. 🕯️@StandWithUs pic.twitter.com/eQClgiQ164
— TheJewishAlly (@TheJewishAlly) April 12, 2026
“A demonstration in the parking lot in front of the memorial and later at the bell tower stands in opposition to that. Additionally, the demonstration is being organized by a group that essentially originates from the so-called Communist Organization – a small, left-authoritarian group that celebrated the October 7 attacks as a Palestinian act of liberation. These are groups that promote inhumane goals, and for us, that crosses a red line.”
Despite the group’s claims, it is not certain that the protest took place in front of the memorial site, as several media outlets cited the police as saying they had no information about a gathering at the site at the time.
Nevertheless, a video published by the group showed alleged Jewish members wearing T-shirts with the slogans, “Jews Against Genocide” and “From Buchenwald to Gaza – Resistance until Liberation” at the protest.
A spokesperson for the memorial foundation said, “They did exactly what they were forbidden from doing on the premises – namely, comparing Buchenwald with Gaza.”
Buchenwald, located near the city of Weimar, was active between July 1937 and April 1945, serving mainly as a forced labor camp rather than a death camp, like Auschwitz. Despite this, some 56,000 out of the around 277,000 people interned there were killed, including about 11,000 Jews, but also political prisoners, Roma, gay people, and Soviet prisoners of war.
🇩🇪 Germany, April 2026: Pro-Palestinian activists planned a keffiyeh protest at Buchenwald during the camp’s 81st liberation anniversary, at the site where 56,000 people were murdered.
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) April 13, 2026
They openly praised the October 7 massacre, the largest mass murder of Jews since the… pic.twitter.com/o6wrz3GohZ
The “Kufiyas in Buchenwald” group was created earlier this year after a court allowed the memorial site to refuse keffiyeh-clad activists entry to its grounds, arguing that the shawl, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism and terrorism, could be disruptive and undercut its purpose.
The group in response claimed that by ignoring “the genocide in Gaza,” the memorial had become “a place of historical revisionism and genocide denial.”
This radical left-wing reinterpretation of Holocaust remembrance at Buchenwald received a special impetus from the camp being the site of the “Oath of Buchenwald,” sworn by thousands of survivors upon their liberation, which the group claims to uphold.
After being freed, the former inmates swore that “the complete destruction of Nazism is our goal. The building of a new world of peace and freedom is our ideal.”
The issue of antisemitism among Germany’s far left has received a lot of coverage this past month, especially after the Lower Saxony branch of Germany’s Left Party passed a resolution declaring itself as “anti-Zionist,” officially opposing Israel’s right to exist.
This triggered the resignation of party member Andreas Büttner, who had served as the antisemitism commissioner in the state of Brandenburg, and an examination of “antisemitic tendencies” within the party by the country’s domestic intelligence agency.
Meanwhile, the official memorial event in Buchenwald passed with a few interruptions but no major disturbances.
Notably, this was the first time in years in which none of the camp’s survivors were able to speak at the memorial due to flight restrictions from Israel.
Site director Wagner said beforehand that “not a survivor will deliver the main speech, but instead a descendant – in this case, Hape Kerkeling, a grandson. This points to the fact that the era of eyewitness testimony has effectively come to an end.”
Kerkeling is a famous German comedian, whose grandfather was interned in Buchenwald as a political prisoner. “Here in Buchenwald, he was tortured, humiliated, and witnessed countless murders. The fact that he survived this madness is a miracle,” Kerkeling said about his grandfather.
“He was a person who was simply not willing to look away as darkness fell over Germany.”
Wagner continued, saying that “attempts by various groups and individuals to misuse Buchenwald as a stage for their particular political goals” could be connected “to the end of the era of eyewitnesses – the fact that there are hardly any survivors left who can push back against this.”
“This trend will likely increase in the coming years,” Wagner warned.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
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