Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Angela Merkel Condemns Hate at Dachau Anniversary

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned anti-Semitism during a ceremony to make 70 years since the liberation of the Nazis’ Dachau concentration camp.

“We are all forever called upon, to never close our eyes and ears to those who today accost, threaten and attack people when they identify themselves somehow as Jews or also when they side with the state of Israel,” Merkel said at Sunday’s ceremony, attended by Holocaust survivors.

Merkel first visited Dachau in 2013, the first German chancellor to do so.

“There were unfathomable horrors everywhere,” said Merkel. “They all admonish us to never forget. No, we will never forget. We’ll not forget for the sake of the victims, for our own sake, and for the sake of future generations.”

Dachau, which is about 10 miles from Munich, was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany.

The ceremony is one of several that have taken place at Nazi camps throughout Europe during this 70th year since the end of World War II.

The main gate of the camp, bearing the sign “Arbeit macht frei,” or work sets you free, was stolen last year and was recreated by a German blacksmith.

More than 200,000 people were imprisoned in the camp and its satellite locations between 1933 and 1945. Some 28,000 prisoners died in the Dachau camp, and another 13,000 died at the external sites.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.