“Deliberate attack on memory”: trees dedicated to the memory of Buchenwald concentration camp victims cut down

Berlin The Buchenwald concentration camp memorial says seven trees dedicated to the memory of Nazi camp victims in East Germany have been cut down.

The foundation that runs the memorial tweeted on Wednesday that trees near the site had been attacked the previous day. It posted photos showing the trees had been cut almost in half from the trunk, and said it was “shocked by a deliberate attack on memory.”

The foundation said that it has lodged a complaint with the police.

One of the trees was dedicated to children killed in Buchenwald and the other to six prisoners in the camp. The trees were part of a project called “1,000 Beaches” and were planted outside the actual camp on a path along which prisoners were taken.

The Buchenwald concentration camp was established in 1937. Of the 280,000 prisoners held in Buchenwald and its satellite camps, more than 56,000 were killed by the Nazis or as a result of hunger, disease, or medical experiments before the camp’s liberation on April 11, 1945.