The commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg could only be held virtually, and the few living witnesses still could not come. Two months after this special anniversary in this special year of commemoration for the Federal Republic, the city councilors of Oranienburg have now made a fatal decision. Critics call them forgotten by history and scandalous.
A new residential area is to be built in the immediate vicinity of the former concentration camp, the city is growing, and living space is also becoming scarce in the bacon belt. Where the one-, two-family and row houses are to be built was once the Zeppelin concentration camp external command.
For the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH Friedrichshafen, concentration camp prisoners had to manufacture and repair bondage balloons in forced labor. The balloons were intended to hinder Allied planes from approaching.
Eight new streets are being created in the new residential area – and the city council had to decide how the streets should be named. A commission was convened and made suggestions. But after months of controversy, the city of Oranienburg does not want to remember the 700 concentration camp prisoners, mostly minors from Eastern Europe, who were tortured there.
The city councilors were well aware of what they were doing. There was massive criticism – from the International Sachsenhausen Committee, relatives of concentration camp prisoners, the international advisory board of the Memorial Foundation, the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the memorial itself.
Streets are named after eight women from Oranienburg history
A majority of the city councilors voted a week ago with the votes of the SPD, CDU and AfD. The streets are named after eight women from Oranienburg history.
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Only one street is to be named after a victim of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the others after three social democrats, who were the first female city councilors after the introduction of women’s suffrage in 1919 and after a former mayor of the city. But also after a woman who was interned in the special camp after 1945 that the Soviets had set up on the concentration camp site. The debate was also about allegations that she had played down the Holocaust.
The director of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation, Axel Drecoll, speaks of equating the victims of the Nazi regime and the special camp. Drecoll said he was deeply disappointed. “It is absolutely incomprehensible to me that it was not possible to change the list of proposals for weeks and months and despite the numerous submissions, requests and protests from home and abroad.”
Street names take no account of the victims’ concerns
The street names decided do not take the concerns of the victims of the concentration camp and their relatives into consideration. The decision was a “clear affront to people for whom the city of Oranienburg would have to take a special responsibility,” said Drecoll.
What is happening in Oranienburg is also registered internationally. “We are deeply concerned that the vast majority of city councilors have ignored the many vigorous appeals from across Europe against the concealment of the site’s concentration camp history and against equating concentration camps and special camps,” said Andreas Meyer, Vice President of the International Sachsenhausen Committee. The city councilors inflicted severe injuries on the survivors and their families. This would permanently damage the relationship with the city of Oranienburg.
On the same day, the town-twinning committee votes with Kfar Jona in Israel
For the memorial and the International Sachsenhausen Committee, another decision made by city councilors on the same day appears almost macabre. The city councilors voted for a city partnership with Kfar Jona in Israel.
This is unlikely given the decision on the street names, said Thomas Lutz from the Advisory Board of the Memorial Foundation. The same now applies to the city’s longstanding commitment to anti-Semitism and racism. The city councilors “trample on the expectations of relatives of Nazi victims from across Europe for a declaration by the Germans of the crimes committed,” he said.
