A planned protest at the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial on the anniversary of its liberation is igniting backlash in Germany for a simple reason: Activists intend to turn a Holocaust commemoration into a contemporary political demonstration.
According to reports, radical organizations are organizing a demonstration at the site on April 11 under the slogan “Keffiyehs in Buchenwald,” accusing the memorial’s management of “spreading Israeli propaganda” and not being “hostile enough toward Israel.” Among the groups involved are the student wing of Germany’s Left Party, the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, and the German Communist Party.
The date is not incidental. April 11 marks the liberation of the camp in 1945.
Buchenwald was liberated by U.S. forces in April 1945. About 56,000 prisoners were killed there, including many Jews. Each year, survivors, families, and public officials gather at the former roll call grounds where prisoners once stood for hours in freezing weather. The purpose of that day is remembrance.
OUTRAGEOUS: Free Palestine activists are planning a protest at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany during the anniversary of its liberation.
About 56,000 prisoners were murdered at Buchenwald, including many Jews, yet the Free Palestine movement is turning the… pic.twitter.com/DShNDGyDy6
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) February 21, 2026
The protest follows an incident last year in which a woman was denied entry while wearing a keffiyeh during what was described as a protest action. Israel Hayom reports that a German court later upheld the memorial’s decision. Organizers now accuse the site of promoting “historical revisionism” and advancing an “Israeli narrative.”
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German officials have responded directly. Felix Klein, Germany’s commissioner for combating antisemitism, described the initiative as more than a policy disagreement.
Klein called the planned demonstration “a frontal assault on the dignity of commemoration and on the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.”
The Buchenwald Memorial Foundation likewise warned against attempts to repurpose the site for present-day politics.
The foundation cautioned against efforts “to exploit the memory of the camp for contemporary political purposes,” stressing its commitment to preserving historical memory and opposing antisemitism and incitement.
Holocaust memorials are not neutral public squares. They mark places where human beings were reduced to numbers, forced into labor, and systematically murdered. The victims commemorated at Buchenwald were not casualties of a modern geopolitical dispute, and memory is not a political prop.
Political protest has its place in democratic societies. A concentration camp memorial on liberation day should remain devoted to remembrance, not repurposed for contemporary spectacle.
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