Local organizers of the Kufiyas in Buchenwald campaign were banned from proceeding with a vigil registered for 12 April at the memorial site. The group, among it numerous Jewish and anti-fascist organizations, says the gathering intended to commemorate victims of genocide and fascism, honor the oath of Buchenwald, and uplift the fundamental duty to fight against all genocides, particularly the genocide currently taking place in Palestine. However, a written ban from the police was received on 30 March—a ban which the campaign leaders plan to challenge in court.
“The ban on our vigil is just the most recent chapter in Germany’s long history of exploiting the Nazi genocide to criminalize and silence critical voices speaking out in solidarity with Palestine,” said Tair B., spokesperson for Jüdische Stimme and one of the organizers of the campaign. “The ban on the kufiya and our vigil demonstrate that for the German government and the management of Buchenwald, ‘Never again’ does not mean ‘Never again for anyone,’ but rather ‘Again for some.’”
The campaign was launched earlier this year to oppose the banning of solidarity symbols such as the kufiya, olive branch, and watermelon at the memorial, as well as the site’s other actions limiting free speech about the genocide in Palestine.
Meanwhile, German authorities continue to make the absurd but typical claims that the memorial site be “apolitical,” and that relatives of the victims of German fascism fail to honor their histories through their opposition to the genocides of today.
“As Jewish, queer and other anti-fascists, many of us the children and grandchildren of survivors of and those persecuted and murdered in the Nazi genocide, we wholeheartedly reject the German state dictating conditions around commemoration,” commented Rachael Shapiro, an organizer with the International Jewish Antizionist Network. “Through their insistence on the singularity and exceptionalism of the Nazi genocide of European Jews, Buchenwald and other sites of ‘commemoration’ actively provide cover for Germany’s participation in and funding of the mass murder of Palestinians.”
She continued, “We honor the legacy of those who resisted the Nazis by organizing today—for the Palestinian right to resist ‘Israeli’ and Zionist fascism, and to defend our moral obligation to act in solidarity with them.”
The Kufiyas in Buchenwald campaign is currently challenging the ban in court and remains committed to its core demands, calling on the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorial Foundation to:
1. Openly address the genocide in Gaza at the Buchenwald Memorial.
2. Lift the ban on Palestinian symbols at the Buchenwald Memorial and cease the
denigration of them as anti-Semitic.
3. Lift all entry- or speaking bans on the premises due to solidarity with Palestine or
criticism of the apartheid state of Israel.
