Bundestag election: AfD hangs election poster at Buchenwald concentration camp memorial

At the memorial of the former Buchenwald concentration camp, the AfD is calling for "Courage to truth" with a poster.

That should have legal consequences.

Weimar - In the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, an estimated 56,000 people were killed by torture, medical experiments and emaciation during the Nazi regime - including Jews, Sinti, Roma, prisoners of war, politically persecuted people and "strangers".

Thousands were shot.

Almost 80 years later, shortly before the federal election in 2021 *, the AfD * wants to show its presence there and advertise itself.

"Germany.

But normal. ”It says, among other things, above the logo of the extreme right party on an election poster.

The memorial reacts - and examines legal steps.

Bundestag election: AfD hangs poster in front of Buchenwald concentration camp memorial

The road to Ettersberg near Weimar is not a common place for election posters.

Because only those who want to visit the memorial for the Buchenwald Concentration Camp use this path.

This is precisely why a poster caused a stir here.

On Tuesday (August 31, 2021) an employee discovered an AfD poster calling for “courage to be truthful”.

He immediately informed the management of the memorial.

The AfD parliamentary group in Weimar had photographed the affixing of the election poster at the concentration camp memorial.

The AfD's Facebook page shows a picture of a man hanging up the poster.

In the background you can see the former SS barracks on the site.

AfD - alternative for Germany	Political party
founding	February 6, 2013 in Oberursel
Party presidency	Jörg Meuthen, Tino Chrupalla
Youth organization	Young alternative
Alignment	Right-wing conservative to right-wing extremist

“The posters were hanging on a memorial's own lamp post on the site of the memorial,” reports the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation via Twitter.

“The poster in the photo had already been cut by strangers.

We took it down and took it into safe custody. ”Since high fines or imprisonment are possible in the event of damage to election posters, they have legally protected themselves.

"It is our site and it is our lamppost on which the poster was hanging." Removing someone else's poster from private property on private property is not a criminal offense.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp Memorial is examining legal action against AfD

According to its own information, the foundation is checking to take legal action against the AfD - and whether the party will be required to pay a “custody fee”, said memorial director Jens-Christian Wagner in an interview with Spiegel.

In general, election advertising has "no place in the memorial".

The fact that it now comes from the AfD Thuringia gives the matter a new weight: "It has repeatedly proven in the past that it is hostile to the culture of remembrance and thus also to the memorial work in Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora," Wagner said Mirrors.

Country boss Björn Höcke once called for a "memory policy turnaround of 180 degrees" * and spoke of a "stupid coping policy" that paralyzes Germany.

The decision to exclude the AfD from commemorative events was "logical" according to Wagner.

The saying “courage to be truthful” is, especially in this place, a “very targeted provocation”.

"Courage for the Truth".

With it, the Thuringian #AfD posted the parking lot in the # Gedenkstätte #Buchenwald - an occasion for our foundation management to lend a hand and remove this attack on the memorial work.

#Antifascism pic.twitter.com/wwe0od1yp9

- Pen.

Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials (@Buchenwald_Dora) September 1, 2021

“You don't hang a poster 'by accident' or 'unconsciously' in the memorial,” press spokesman Rikola-Gunnar Lüttgenau told the Berliner Kurier.

So far, no other party has tried to put up an election poster there.

In principle, this is not allowed.

Posters by other parties would also have been removed if they had been hung there.

“A memorial is not an election campaign site,” Wagner told Spiegel.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp Memorial: AfD “always presents itself as a victim” - still being banned from the house

The AfD was not contacted.

Wagner sees no reason to "speak to a party that demonstrably spreads historical revisionism and opposed a confrontation with National Socialism".

He went on to say: “Why should we tolerate advertising for a party that represents extreme right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic positions?

Especially since this is not an isolated case. "

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Jens-Christian Wagner is director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.

(Archive photo)

© ari / Imago

The AfD parliamentary group in Weimar reacted to the removal of its poster on Facebook. "Worthy commemoration needs worthy staff!", It says in a post - "and no petty criminals who expose themselves to be enemies of democracy through the damage to property and the theft of our election posters." According to the AfD, Jens-Christian Wagner "damaged" the reputation of the memorial Beech forest. However, he defends the decision. The AfD will present itself as a victim anyway, "it always does". Now it is important to "send a clear historical and political signal". He speaks of an attack on the work of the memorial by the AfD, which will "never be tolerated".

Already six years ago, the AfD clashed with the Buchenwald * and Mittelbau-Dora Memorial Foundation. Björn Höcke and party colleagues wanted to lay a wreath at the former concentration camp, the inscription of which, according to critics, played down the Holocaust. In 2017, representatives of the AfD were banned from commemorating memorial events. The reason was statements by the Thuringian regional chief during a speech to the AfD youth organization in Dresden: "We Germans are the only people in the world who have planted a monument of shame * in the heart of their capital." (Lrg) *

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