Unknown people desecrated trees near Weimar that commemorate the victims of Nazi terror. The Thuringian State Criminal Police Office has now taken over the investigation.
Weimar/Erfurt (dpa/th) – On Thursday, the Thuringian State Criminal Police Office (TLKA) took charge of the investigation into the desecrated memorial trees at the former Buchenwald concentration camp. The authority announced that it was being investigated because of politically motivated damage to property, for which the TLKA was technically responsible.
According to the information, the State Criminal Police Office and the State Police Inspectorate in Jena are working flat out to solve the case. The Buchenwald Memorial, the Lebenshilfewerk Weimar/Apolda and the city of Weimar are in close contact and exchange information with the police and the competent public prosecutor’s office in Erfurt.
In the past week, seven trees had been cut down or broken off near Buchenwald. On Saturday, another five broken or damaged trees were discovered, commemorating the victims of the National Socialist terror regime.
Almost exactly 85 years ago, on July 15, 1937, the first prisoners were taken to the Ettersberg camp near Weimar. The Nazis deported 280,000 people to Buchenwald before it was liberated by US troops in April 1945. About 56,000 of them were murdered or died of starvation, disease and the effects of medical experiments.