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Tree sawed off near the Buchenwald memorial: “We are appalled by the targeted attack on the memorial” (photo from July 21, 2022)
Photo: Bodo Schackow / dpa
Seven trees were cut down near the Buchenwald memorial to commemorate the victims of the Nazi concentration camp near Weimar.
Now, not far from Weimar, damaged memorial trees have been discovered again.
The two chestnuts are on a path near Schöndorf, a district of Weimar near the memorial, as the managing director of the Lebenshilfe-Werk Weimar/Apolda, Rola Zimmer, told the German Press Agency.
Local women noticed the damage on Saturday morning.
Photos show that the trees were also apparently cut down.
The police have been informed, Zimmer said.
The State Operations Center confirmed that. The facts are currently being examined by the State Criminal Police Office, emergency services are on site, said a police spokesman.
Memorial Foundation shocked
Schöndorf is a few kilometers away from the former concentration camp.
According to Zimmer, the spot where the damaged trees were found is part of a route of the "death marches" of concentration camp prisoners.
The term stands for the evacuation of the camp, which the Nazis began shortly before its liberation in early April 1945.
Thousands of prisoners were herded towards other concentration camps such as Flossenbürg and Dachau, and many died.
A few days ago, seven memorial trees for concentration camp victims were cut down by unknown persons at another location near the memorial.
The act near the route of the former Buchenwaldbahn, with which people from all over Europe were brought to the concentration camp by the National Socialists, became known on Wednesday.
"We are appalled by the targeted attack on the commemoration," wrote the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation on Twitter.
The act also sparked international outrage.
The trees, like those discovered on Saturday, are part of a memorial project "1000 beeches" coordinated by the Lebenshilfe-Werk.
Trees have been planted here for victims of National Socialism every year since 1999.
In the Buchenwald concentration camp, around 56,000 inmates had died from starvation, disease and Nazi medical experiments.
On April 11, 1945, US troops liberated the camp.
ptz/dpa
