Hardly anything is heard of the Bavarian memorial concept, announced two years ago as a major success. Foundation director Karl Freller has no doubts about the successful completion of the remembrance project.
The international memorial at the Dachau concentration camp memorial stands on a crumbling foundation. The two reconstructed prisoner barracks cannot be entered in bad weather – in danger of collapsing, almost a symbol of the country’s politics of remembrance. The Federal Republic of Germany is obliged to maintain the places of sacrifice. The state and the federal government give money, but the bottom line is that it is not enough – a tough battle for the Bavarian Memorial Foundation, just to build a suitable visitor car park in Dachau, for example. That took years. A lot of money, on the other hand, flows into the so-called perpetrator locations, the former Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg or Obersalzberg. Holocaust survivors see this with skepticism, including the Vice President of the State Parliament and Foundation Director Karl Freller (CSU), who speaks with the SZ about the announced turnaround in the politics of remembrance.