Anti-Israel group plans ‘Keffiyehs for Buchenwald’ protest on anniversary of camp’s liberation

Berlin officials reacted sharply to the initiative, with officials describing the planned rally as “an assault on the dignity of the victims’ memory.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

German authorities and Jewish organizations are condemning a planned demonstration by radical groups at the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial on April 11, the anniversary of the camp’s liberation, after organizers accused the memorial of disseminating what they called Israeli propaganda.

The protest, announced under the slogan “Keffiyehs in Buchenwald,” is being organized by a coalition of pro-Palestinian and far-left groups that describe themselves as part of an international anti-fascist movement.

The campaign alleges that the memorial’s management engages in “historical revisionism and genocide denial” and objects to its stance toward Israel.

Berlin officials reacted sharply to the initiative, with officials describing the planned rally as “an assault on the dignity of the victims’ memory.”

Tens of thousands of Jews were murdered at Buchenwald during the Holocaust, and the site remains one of the most significant memorials to Nazi atrocities.

According to the organizers, the demonstration is intended in part to protest a 2025 court ruling that upheld the memorial’s right to refuse entry to visitors wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh.

The groups behind the protest argue that the decision amounts to political discrimination, while the memorial has defended the policy as necessary to safeguard the integrity of the site.

Participants expected to take part in the April 11 protest include activists associated with the youth wing of Germany’s Left Party, the German Communist Party, and Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East.

The campaign has circulated calls to mobilize at the memorial on the date marking the camp’s liberation in 1945.

The German newspaper Bild reported, citing Switzerland’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung, that radical organizations are coordinating the demonstration and that one of the leading figures behind the effort is affiliated with a communist group that previously voiced support for the Oct. 7 massacre carried out by Hamas.

Following the attack, that organization described the violence as a “legitimate uprising by all means necessary,” according to the report.