Pro-Palestinian activists call for protest at Nazi death camp memorial

The ‘Keffiyehs in Buchenwald’ campaign accused the site of spreading Israeli propaganda

Several pro-Palestinian groups are planning a protest against the administration of the memorial to the Jewish and other victims of the Nazi Buchenwald death camp in Germany, German media reported over the weekend.

Supporters of the ‘Keffiyehs in Buchenwald’ online campaign have accused the managers of the memorial site of spreading “Israeli propaganda” and providing “ideological support for the ongoing genocide in Palestine.” The activists are calling for a public protest at the site near the German city of Weimar in April, during commemorations marking the 81st anniversary of the camp’s liberation by US troops.

The activists also criticized the ban on the keffiyeh headscarf and other Palestinian symbols at the site, as well as the disinvitation of critics of Israel from events hosted by the memorial complex.

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Rikola-Gunnar Luettgenau, spokesman for the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, condemned the campaign as “a completely inappropriate instrumentalization of the commemoration of the victims of National Socialism for political purposes.”

Groups “celebrating and glorifying” the Palestinian armed group Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and denying Israel’s right to exist “have no place here,” Luettgenau said on Saturday.

In 2025, a German court ruled that the memorial has the right to refuse entry to people wearing the keffiyeh, arguing that it would “endanger the sense of security of many Jews, especially at this site.”

Nearly 278,000 prisoners were held in Buchenwald between 1937 and 1945, and 56,000 of them died.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas carried out a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. More than 72,000 Palestinians have since been killed during Israel’s operation in Gaza.