The Buchenwald and Mittelbau Dora Memorial Foundation also reacted to Ivan Ivanji’s death with deep sadness. “We are very sad and yet full of joy to have known this person and worked with him,” wrote foundation director Jens-Christian Wagner and his predecessor Volkhard Knigge together.
Ivanji remains a friend, encourager and advisor. He showed what it means not to let politically motivated hatred and exclusion and murder have the last word. What counted for him was practical humanity and solidarity, in recognition of the dignity of every single person.
Hitler is dead. We are still alive. Let him be angry and turn in his grave.
Ivanji viewed Weimar as his second home, where he felt particularly close to Goethe and the humanism of German classical music, but also to his fellow prisoners, according to the foundation directors, who expressed their condolences to the family. They were reminiscent of a sentence Ivanji once said in Weimar: “Hitler is dead. We are still alive. Let him get angry and turn in his grave.” Ivanji was 95 years old.
In Weimar, a book of condolence will be available in the town hall ballroom on Saturday, May 11th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Monday, May 13th, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.