BERLIN (AP) — The Buchenwald concentration camp memorial says that seven trees dedicated to the memory of victims of the Nazi camp in eastern Germany have been chopped down.
The foundation that runs the memorial tweeted on Wednesday that the trees near the site apparently were attacked the previous day.
It posted pictures showing the trees severed about halfway up the trunk, and said it was “appalled at the deliberate attack on remembrance.”
The foundation said that it had filed a complaint to police.
Prisoners and U.S. army soldiers stand behind the gate of Buchenwald concentration camp on which it is written ‘Jedem das seine’ (To each his just desserts). Construction started 15 July 1937 and was liberated by U.S. General Patton’s army 11 April 1945. Between 239,000 and 250,000 people were imprisoned in this camp. About 56,000 died among which 11,000 Jews. (Getty)
One of the trees was dedicated to children killed at Buchenwald and the others to six prisoners at the camp. The trees were part of a project called “1,000 beeches” and were planted on a route outside the actual camp along which prisoners were taken.
The Buchenwald concentration camp was established in 1937.
More than 56,000 of the 280,000 inmates held at Buchenwald and its satellite camps were killed by the Nazis or died as a result of hunger, illness or medical experiments before the camp’s liberation on April 11, 1945.