The supervising head of a concentration camp memorial issues a warning about the AfD and faces threats.
The correspondence from Jens-Christian Wagner, in charge of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora memorials, has sparked significant resentment. He cautioned voters against supporting the AfD in Thuringia, and subsequent repercussions ensued. His likeness was depicted on a remembrance stone in Mittelbau-Dora, as he shared on various platforms. This stone commemorates the tragic instances of death marches from the Mittelbau-Dora camp complex.
Moreover, a woman from Weimar sent an email to Wagner, suggesting that he, like the late SPD state parliamentarian Thomas Hartung, would receive punishment for his actions. Hartung sadly passed away on July 30 due to cancer, having previously raised concerns about the AfD and Björn Höcke, urging citizens to endorse democratic parties instead.
Wagner remains critical of the AfD, viewing their allusions to Nazism as trivializing its atrocities. The AfD in Thuringia is recognized by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a right-wing extremist organization with a secure status. Recently, the historian sent a letter to Thuringian voters, expressing his concerns in light of the upcoming state election on September 1.
Letter to Seniors in Thuringia
Wagner stated that the AfD seeks to disregard the suffering experienced by the victims of Nazism, even in concentration camps like Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora. The letter reached almost 300,000 seniors in Thuringia.
A spokesperson for the memorials speculated that the fierce response to the letter was a result of mass distribution. A police report was filed in Nordhausen after Wagner's image was cut out from one of the letters and placed on the memorial stone.
Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt categorically denounced these threats as unacceptable. She lamented that certain segments of society have lost their moral compass, aiming to intimidate and silence defenders of democracy and the legacy of remembrance.
The leading CDU candidate for the Thuringian state election, Mario Voigt, characterized the attacks on Wagner as intolerable. In his opinion, remembering the murderous Nazi regime remains vital, especially as incidents of anti-Semitism and hostility resurface.
The woman's email implied that Jens-Christian Wagner, like the late SPD parliamentarian Thomas Hartung, could face reprimands for criticizing the AfD due to their Nazi allusions. The National Socialism, the ideology behind Nazi atrocities, is trivialized by the AfD's actions, according to Wagner.
