Remembering at a historical site: 80 years after the Liberation of the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp

On April 4, 1945, units of the fourth US Armored Division liberated “SIII”, the Ohrdruf sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Approximately 20,000 people were imprisoned in this camp as forced laborers and had to work under disastrous conditions. More than 7,000 of them did not survive this torture.

Commitment to historical truth and democracy

An invitation to the commemoration event had been sent to the relatives of the former concentration camp prisoners and of the US soldiers who visited the liberated camp in 1945, and to people dedicated to remembering the crimes committed in Ohrdruf. The event took place at the former camp’s site, which now is a military training area of the German army.

In her opening address, Floriane Azoulay, Director of the Arolsen Archives, paid tribute to all the participants who “make sure that the victims’ voices are being heard at a time where remembrance is increasingly questioned.” She addressed the alarming rise in antisemitism and group-focused enmity in a society in which trust in facts and science was rapidly dwindling. This is why the commemoration place of Ohrdruf is of relevance far beyond the borders of the rural district.

Prof. Jens-Christian Wagner, Director of the Foundation of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorials, recalled the inhumane conditions the soldiers of the US Army were confronted with at the site of the Ohrdruf concentration camp. Against this backdrop, he emphasized the responsibility for the political situation in the region today. He clearly described the voting results of the AfD (German abbreviation of the Alternative for Germany) as disgraceful.

Nobody can deny Ohrdruf

John R. Crosby, Consul General of the United States of America, and Prof. Rebecca Boehling from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum addressed the relevance of the well-known photos and films from Ohrdruf. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was to be President of the USA later, had them taken to show the atrocities committed by the Nazis to the world and to make sure that no one would ever be able to deny them. For this reason, Rebecca Boehling said, the permanent exhibition in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum started with precisely these testimonies.

Forget-me-not will grow for the victims

The event ended with the laying of wreaths and small clay sculptures by generational tandems consisting of a youth and a victims’ relative each. The students had previously modeled the sculptures based on photos of former Ohrdruf prisoners and incorporated forget-me-not seeds into them. The unfired clay will decay with the cycle of weathering, the seed will germinate, and the sign of memory become part of the landscape.

Re-thinking remembrance

The commemoration event was followed by various workshops at Ehrenstein Castle. The students used the occasion to exchange views with the victims’ relatives Petér Füzi and Bart FM Droog, talk to the photographer and filmmaker Matthew Nash and do a digital tour of the site of the former Ohrdruf concentration camp playing the game “Suspekt: Landschaft der Verbrechen“ (Suspicious: A Landscape of Crime). What is more, the exhibition titled “Die Kunst des Erinnerns” (The Art of Remembering) and created by Dr. Christoph Mauny, Weimar Painting and Drawing School, was shown. The “neue bauhauskapelle weimar” (the new Bauhaus band weimar) played songs of the Dutch Jazz duo „Johnny & Jones“, whom the Nazis had deported to Ohrdruf and murdered.

Students keep memory awake

The commemoration day ended with the panel discussion “Gedenken im Wandel – Wie erinnern wir heute?” (Remembrance in change – How do we remember today?) moderated by Birthe Pater, Arolsen Archives, and Holger Obbarius, Concentration Camp Buchenwald Memorial. On the podium, students from Edith-Stein-School (Erfurt), Gleichense Gymnasium (Ohrdruf), Gustav-Freytag-Gymnasium (Gotha), Emil-Petri-School (Arnstadt), and Grimmelshausen Gymnasium (Gelnhausen) described how they took engaged action against oblivion in regional remembrance projects.

Student Felix said: “I am surprised how close you can get to a person by a research. You do not only tell the story behind the documents which the Arolsen Archives preserve, but you also tell how you see the fate yourself, i.e. also about yourself.” Student Chantal added: “My involvement has shown me that you can do something that has an effect. Not only even though I am a student, but above all because I am a student.”