Right-wing extremism
Concentration camp memorials: More right-wing extremist attacks
The international memorial in the Dachau concentration camp memorial. There are increasing cases of vandalism and other attacks there. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
Vandalism, graffiti, attacks on the internet: concentration camp memorials are increasingly being threatened – across Germany.
“There are currently increasing cases of vandalism, graffiti and other incidents at German memorial sites nationwide,” said Clara Mansfeld, spokeswoman for the Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centers Foundation in memory of the victims of Nazi crimes, to the RND. “This concerns us.”
Incidents “almost weekly”
Other institutions also report vandalism, swastika graffiti, and an increased presence of right-wing extremists on site. The deputy director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, Rikola-Gunnar Lüttgenau, said: “Two years ago these were incidents that were recorded about once a month, but then they were noticed every 14 days, now they are from to report crimes to us almost every week.”
The continuously increasing number of such incidents is “a seismograph that attempts are being made to cause the foundations of today’s Federal Republic to slip.”
The spokeswoman for the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, Verena Bierl, told the RND that the incidents were not just limited to the grounds and rooms. “In recent decades, attacks and disruptions have, among other things, shifted to the digital space.”