AJC Decries The Defacement Of Buchenwald Memorial Monument

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 30 July 1998

The American Jewish Committee condemns the desecration of the memorial monument at the Buchenwald concentration camp this past weekend and calls upon the German authorities to take additional measures to seek an end to such attacks on former concentration camp sites in Germany.

The defaced eleven-figure sculpture was erected in 1958 and depicts a group of Buchenwald liberated survivors. The unknown assailants damaged the figure of a child by partially sawing through one of its legs.

Eugene DuBow, the director of AJC's Berlin office, said, "This attack, though not the first, is especially outrageous because the child was a reminder of the thousands of children who did not survive the horrors of Buchenwald. It is without doubt another extremist attempt to undermine the memory of the Holocaust, but with increased efforts from the German government, it should not be allowed to happen again."

AJC is deeply concerned because the Buchenwald concentration camp is situated in the former East Germany, where problems of right-wing violence have been particularly acute, and where teachings of Holocaust history and German responsibility are lacking. In fact, before the fall of Communism, East German authorities intentionally suppressed the truth that it had been American soldiers that liberated the Buchenwald camp.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org