Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen | 80 years after liberation, survivors warn

Oranienburg/Fürstenberg/Havel. Survivors of the former concentration camps in Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück commemorated their liberation in 1945 with emotional words. "80 years is a pretty long time, and for some, a good excuse to finally forget the events that took place here 80 years ago," said Richard Fagot in Sachsenhausen. The Israeli is one of the concentration camp's survivors. The crimes must not be trivialized or denied, Fagot said.

Brandenburg's Minister-President Dietmar Woidke (SPD) was among the many political guests at the commemoration ceremony in Sachsenhausen. "Eighty years after the liberation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, some history deniers no longer want to hear anything about the Holocaust," said Woidke. "But neither memory nor historical responsibility draws a line under it." When one visits the sites of Nazi murders, when one actively and critically engages with the past, one cannot remain indifferent.

Woidke appeals to the people

Woidke also emphasized the importance of survivors' accounts. "There are fewer and fewer contemporary witnesses who can report on the cruel conditions of the imprisonment and killing of thousands of people behind the walls of the camps," Woidke warned. He therefore appealed to keep the historical sites of Nazi crimes alive. "We must not turn a blind eye to discrimination, xenophobia, and ultimately, to the reinterpretation of the worst chapter in German history."

Four concentration camp survivors from Israel, Poland, and Ukraine, as well as relatives of survivors, participated in the commemoration in Sachsenhausen. Speeches were given, songs were sung, prayers were said, and flowers and wreaths were laid. Among the guests were Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU), Brandenburg's State Parliament President Ulrike Liedtke (SPD), and Bahar Haghanipour, Vice President of the Berlin House of Representatives.

Between 1936 and 1945, more than 200,000 people were imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and its approximately 100 satellite camps. According to the foundation, at least 55,000 died due to inhumane prison conditions or were murdered by the SS.

Powerful words also in Ravensbrück

Claudia Roth (Green Party), the acting Minister of State for Culture, also emphasized the importance of contemporary witnesses at the former women's camp in Ravensbrück: "We need the memories of the survivors," she said at a memorial event in Ravensbrück. "But they should not only conjure up the past; they should open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to the present."

Also present were nine survivors from Germany, Denmark, France, Israel, Poland, and Switzerland. The five women and four men, aged between 81 and 95, were deported by the Nazis to the Ravensbrück concentration camp and its subcamps as children and adolescents.

At the same time, Roth urged the need to stand up for democracy and against racism and hate speech at all times. "Because even here, far from the big cities, in the isolation and quiet of rural areas, those who have forgotten history are once again making their voices heard." They must be confronted peacefully but resolutely. In addition to Roth, Tobias Dünow (SPD), Brandenburg's State Secretary for Science, Research and Culture, was also present.

In 1939, the Nazis' so-called Schutzstaffel (protection squad) built Germany's largest women's concentration camp in Ravensbrück, to which men were later also admitted. According to the memorial, between 1939 and 1945, more than 120,000 women, 20,000 men, and approximately 1,200 young women were imprisoned there. Tens of thousands were murdered or died of starvation, disease, or medical experiments. dpa/nd