Kufiyas in Buchenwald: protest continues despite ban

JVL Introduction

There is a dominant assumption that it is a dreadful thing to refer to the suffering of Palestinians when commemorating the Nazi Holocaust because of its terrible impact of Jews in our not too distant history. This assumption must be challenged, eg regarding Holocaust Museums, how the Holocaust is taught and yes, even if those places where the worst the Nazis did took place.

Buchenwald is one of the places where the plight of Jews – and people held for many other “reasons” – is rightly marked, never to be forgotten; but these courageous comrades in Germany, many of whom are Jewish, refuse to accept the logic that it is only about honouring the victims’ memory and insist that the lessons to be drawn from that terrible period must mean “never again for anyone” and that, of course, “everyone” includes Palestinians.

“This memorial does not mandate the prevention and recognition of genocides as they occur. Instead, it portrays German fascism and the Nazi genocide as a singular and apolitical event to justify the German state’s political and economic support for the apartheid state of Israel while it commits genocide in Palestine,”

These are their clear and reasonable demands:

1. Openly address the genocide in Gaza at the Buchenwald Memorial.
2. Lift the ban on Palestinian symbols at the Buchenwald Memorial and cease the denigration of them as anti-Semitic.
3. Lift all entry- or speaking bans on the premises due to solidarity with Palestine or criticism of the apartheid state of Israel.

We are pleased to publish their Press Statement on why Jewish anti-fascist activists went to Buchenwald despite the ban and their statement from earlier in April when their action was forbidden.

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This article was originally published by Kufiyas in Buchenwald Website on Sun 12 Apr 2026. Read the original here.