At the Buchenwald memorial service on the Ettersberg near Weimar, actor and writer Hape Kerkeling attended not as a celebrity but as the grandson of a camp survivor. He spoke of his grandfather, Hermann Kerkeling — a Catholic carpenter from Recklinghausen who, after distributing anti‑Nazi leaflets in 1933, endured twelve years in Buchenwald — and described the heavy, lasting silence that followed his return. Kerkeling warned that forgetting the past and the rise of right‑wing populism are dangers visitors must guard against.
Buchenwald functioned from 1937 until 1945. It held political opponents, communists, homosexuals, forced laborers from abroad, Jews, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah’s Witnesses and clergy who opposed the regime. The site comprised the main camp on the Ettersberg and more than 50 satellite camps tied to wartime production. More than 250,000 people passed through Buchenwald; by April 1945 roughly 56,000 prisoners had been killed or had died from murder, torture, exhaustion or despair.
As US forces approached on April 11, 1945, prisoners who had organized resistance inside the camp rose up and detained fleeing SS guards. That act is remembered as both liberation and self‑liberation. The camp’s entrance clock is frozen at 3:15, the hour of liberation, and serves as a permanent marker of that moment.
The ceremony marked the 81st anniversary of liberation and drew just two former inmates: Alojzy Maciak, 98, from Poland, and Andrej Moiseenko, 99, from Belarus, both still wearing their prisoner caps. The steep decline in survivor attendance was stark: roughly 80 former prisoners were present at the 70th anniversary in 2015, about 15 at the 80th in 2025, and now only two remain to attend.
Jens‑Christian Wagner, director of the Buchenwald Memorial, said the commemoration was overshadowed by current political tensions. He warned that with fewer survivors left to witness history, memorials and remembrance culture risk being co‑opted as platforms for present‑day political battles and self‑promotion. Wagner also pointed to an increase in right‑wing extremism in Thuringia, where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) enjoys unusually strong support and some regional actors have been monitored as right‑wing extremist by domestic intelligence.
Conflicts in the Middle East also affected the day. Organizers said groups tried to leverage the memorial to highlight contemporary crises: one group, calling itself “Kufiyas in Buchenwald,” had planned a vigil for victims of genocide and fascism with a focus on Palestine, but judicial authorities banned the event days before the ceremony.
Security was highly visible. More than 15 police vans were lined up near Weimar’s train station early in the day, officers checked shuttle buses to the memorial, and patrol vehicles were frequently on the grounds. Wagner urged attendees not to disrupt the service.
Tensions flared over the participation of Wolfram Weimer, the federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, whose remit includes support for memorial sites. Chairs of two associations representing relatives of former political prisoners opposed his presence, protesting a recent decision by Weimer to exclude three left‑wing bookshops from cultural awards after intelligence findings. Wagner defended Weimer’s right to speak at the site.
When Weimer spoke, portions of the crowd — including a left‑wing bloc and members of victims’ associations — booed and chanted, interrupting his twelve‑minute address with cries of “Alerta antifascista” and accusations of “Fascist.” Hecklers blended contemporary protest chants with songs and camp tunes, even lines from a composition created inside Buchenwald in 1938. Weimer appealed for respect for the memorial’s dignity, lamented growing disruptions and threats at remembrance sites, and noted that more than 10 percent of the Buchenwald Memorial’s budget is now spent on security and protective measures. Wagner later called the interruptions “shabby” and “unbearable,” particularly because they occurred in the presence of survivors; he defended the legitimacy of a federal representative speaking on the grounds.
Weimer concluded by thanking Hape Kerkeling, who then delivered his remembrance address. The ceremony moved into a minute of silence and the traditional recitation of the Buchenwald Oath — the survivors’ pledge to root out fascism and to build a new world of peace and freedom. Officials and victims’ associations placed fifty wreaths; afterwards, smaller groups and individuals lingered to lay roses and remember specific victim groups.
The memorial’s symbolic 3:15 clock and the few survivors who still attend keep the history of Buchenwald present. But organizers and visitors alike acknowledged mounting challenges: the inevitable fading of firsthand witnesses, attempts to appropriate remembrance for contemporary political aims, and pressure from extremist currents. The liberation of April 11, 1945 ended that particular chapter of horror, yet the camp’s lessons and the responsibility to remember remain disputed and urgently relevant today.