German president: Buchenwald a reminder of Nazi ‘barbarism’

WEIMAR, Germany (AP) — Germany’s president has marked the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp by reminding his compatriots of the inconceivable atrocities the Nazis committed there during the Third Reich. Holocaust survivors and their families were not allowed to gather for anniversary observances this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Survivors instead attended a memorial ceremony online. More than 56,000 prisoners died at Buchenwald and its satellite camps between 1937 and the 1945 liberation. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said during a speech on Sunday that Buchenwald “represents the entire barbarism of the Nazis.” But he also noted that “it was human beings, Germans, who did this to other human beings.”