Far-left anti-Zionist groups are preparing to protest this year’s memorial of the liberation of the Buchenwald camp due to the camp’s ban on pro-Palestinian symbols.
The ‘Kufiyas in Buchenwald’ protest group is organized by the Kufiya Network, as well as Jüdische Stimme and Palästina-Solidarität Köln. The groups accuse the Buchenwald camp of “massively intensifying repression against solidarity with Palestine” through bans on keffiyehs and Palestinian flags.
The group describes itself as an initiative of Jews, queer people, and anti-fascists.
Kufiyas in Buchenwald has scheduled a protest for April 11-12. It is set to include a guided tour “that vividly illustrates the events of the former concentration camp,” lectures, and a panel discussion.
The protest against the camp comes after one of the members of the group, Anna, was banned from visiting last year after she filed an expedited court application requesting she be allowed to wear a keffiyeh during her visit there.
Her request was denied. Following this incident, in April 2025, the camp changed its guidelines to introduce a ban on wearing keffiyehs.
The Kufiyas in Buchenwald statement (which has a dedicated website and social media presence) claims that Buchenwald has become a place of “historical revisionism and genocide denial” due to its choice to “consistently spread Israeli propaganda and provide ideological support for the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
The group cites various “examples” of repression, including its ban on Palestinian symbols (keffiyeh, olive branch, watermelon), bans on certain speeches, and ‘instrumentalization of remembrance.’
The group said that Buchenwald has “cynically linked” the keffiyeh to German fascism and antisemitism, “therefore relativizing and whitewashing German responsibility for the genocide of European Jews by shifting it onto the Palestinians.”
It also condemned how, at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald in April 2025, Jewish philosopher Omri Böhm was “disinvited under pressure from the Israeli embassy for having criticized Zionism and the genocide in Gaza.”
This disinvitation drew particular ire from the group, given Israeli flags and symbols are permitted.
The group claims that Buchenwald’s anti-Palestinian measures have been put in place to “ideologically justify Germany’s renewed participation in genocide – and to do so in a place where genocide was committed 81 years ago.”
It claims this behavior betrays the legacy of those who were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered in Buchenwald – not only Jews, but also Sinti and Roma, queer people, communists, and international anti-fascists.
Kufiyas call for Gaza genocide discussion at Buchenwald
Kufiyas in Buchenwald demands that the management of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation openly address the genocide in Gaza at the Buchenwald Memorial; remove the ban on Palestinian symbols at the Buchenwald Memorial and cease the denigration of them as antisemitic; and halt the no entry or no speaking bans on the premises due to solidarity with Palestine or criticism of the State of Israel.
Given the current ban, the protest will most likely not take place on the grounds themselves.
A spokesperson for the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation told the German site NZZ: “We are concerned that attempts are being made to inappropriately exploit the commemoration.”
The Jerusalem Post approached the memorial for comment.