60th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp Buchenwald

60. obljetnica oslobođenja koncentracionog logora Buchenwald

Survivors Mark Buchenwald Anniversary

WEIMAR, Germany - Survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp joined German leaders Sunday to mark its liberation by U.S. troops 60 years ago and to warn that the suffering of its hundreds of thousands of prisoners must never be forgotten.

Some 240,000 prisoners passed through the camp just outside the city of Weimar between 1937 and 1945 — Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, prominent political prisoners, Jehovah's witnesses and others. About 56,000 died, many worked to death by the Nazis.

About 1,000 people gathered in a cold drizzle as German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and camp survivors observed a minute of silence and placed flowers where prisoners were forced to assemble.

Earlier, Schroeder expressed shame in Germany's name and honored the victims in a ceremony at Weimar's National Theater, a symbol of the city's classical cultural heritage.

"They fell victim to hunger, sickness, the sadistic terror and systematic murder," Schroeder said in a speech. "I bow before you, the victims and their families."

Though Buchenwald was not expressly built for mass killing, as Auschwitz was, it was just as much part of the Nazis' effort to wipe out anyone deemed un-German. Starvation, disease, overwork and medical experiments claimed many lives.

Jerry Hontas said he arrived as a 21-year-old Army medic the day after U.S. troops reached Buchenwald.

"It was so incredible — stacks of bodies, the smell, the total shock and confusion, people walking around by the thousands," he said. "We had no concept for this kind of insane cruelty."

By that time, Georg Sterner, a Hungarian Jew, had been at Buchenwald for 10 months. He recalled looking out from Barracks No. 37 when the first U.S. tank crashed through the barbed-wire perimeter fence on April 11, 1945.

"We always kept up hope," said the 77-year-old retired engineer from Budapest.

The official ceremony was part of a weekend of commemorations. It began with music by Ludwig van Beethoven, a representative of the cultured Germany of which Schroeder said the Nazis were "the absolute negation."

A women's choir sang a song written by two Austrian inmates at Buchenwald that became the secret camp anthem.

"Oh Buchenwald, I cannot forget you, because you are my destiny," they sang. "Only those who leave you can grasp how wonderful freedom is."

Former inmates recalled the stench of the crematoriums, the beatings and the forced labor. They worried that the world will find it harder to understand what happened under the Nazis once the survivors are gone.

"In a certain sense the cycle of active memory is closing, with the vow not only to cast our eyes back upon the past but also to look forward to the future," said Spanish writer and former culture minister Jorge Semprun, himself a former Buchenwald inmate.

With an eye on recent electoral successes by Germany's extreme-right fringe, Schroeder pledged that his country would remain vigilant against neo-Nazi stirrings.

Buchenwald inmates rose up against their Nazi captors as the 6th Armored Division of the U.S. 3rd Army approached the camp. When U.S. troops arrived, they found some 21,000 survivors.

The Americans then forced Weimar residents to look at what had been going on about five miles outside their town. Some women reportedly fainted when they saw the piles of corpses.

But Schroeder noted that Buchenwald's sinister history continued after the Nazi defeat in World War II, when the Soviets turned it into a Stalinist prisoner camp where thousands died.

These days, Weimar would rather be remembered as the place where Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Germany's most revered classical writer and playwright, had his home. Goethe, who died in Weimar in 1832, walked in the forests where the Buchenwald camp later was built.

"This Weimar stands for humanity, enlightenment, idealism," Schroeder said. "It is the geographical closeness of culture and barbarism that makes us so speechless."

By TONY CZUCZKA, Associated Press Writer

Sat Apr 9, 2005 7:10 AM ET

A rose lies on the track after a memorial service at the former railway station of the former concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eastern Germany, Saturday, April 9, 2005. The commemoration ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald take place this weekend. An estimated 240,000 prisoners were brought to the camp between 1937 and 1945, and more than 50,000 of them died during that time. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

Sat Apr 9, 2005 8:59 AM ET

A rose sits between the barbed wire at the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eastern Germany, Saturday, April 9, 2005. The commemoration ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald takes place this weekend. An estimated 240,000 prisoners were brought to the camp between 1937 and 1945, and more than 50,000 of them died during that time. American troops liberated this camp 60 years ago on April 11, 1945. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

Nazi concentration camp survivor Stefan Machala, left, and Stanislaw Bryla, right, both from Poland, stand in the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eastern Germany, Sunday, April 10, 2005. The commemoration ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald takes place this weekend. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

Sun Apr 10, 2005 9:45 AM ET

Visitors stand behind the wreaths after the commemoration ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the liberation in the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eastern Germany, Sunday, April 10, 2005. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

Sun Apr 10, 2005 9:48 AM ET

Sun Apr 10, 2005 9:50 AM ET

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, right, embraces concentration camp survivor Maurice Livartowski from France, during a ceremony to mourn the victims of the Holocaust at the former Buchenwald Nazi death camp near the eastern German town of Weimar in Thuringia on Sunday, April 10, 2005. Frail and elderly survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp on Sunday remembered its '40 hectares of cold and horror' as they commemorated the 60th anniversary of its liberation. In center is German Franz Muentefering, chairman of German Social Democratic Party. (AP Photo / Fabrizio Bensch, pool)

Sun Apr 10, 9:51 AM ET

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, right, and President of the lower house of parliament, Wolfgang Thierse center, walk beside concentration camp survivors from Poland during a ceremony to mourn the victims of the Holocaust at the former Buchenwald Nazi death camp near the eastern German town of Weimar in Thuringia on Sunday, April 10, 2005. Frail and elderly survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp on Sunday remembered its '40 hectares of cold and horror' as they commemorated the 60th anniversary of its liberation. (AP Photo/Fabrizio Bensch, pool)

Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:25 PM ET

The U.S. flag waves behind the barbed wire in the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eastern Germany, Sunday, April 10, 2005. The commemoration ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald takes place this weekend. American troops liberated this camp 60 years ago on April 11, 1945, after more than 50,000 people from different countries died here. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:27 PM ET

The U.S. flag waves behind the barbed wire together with other nation's flags in the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eastern Germany, Sunday, April 10, 2005. The commemoration ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald takes place this weekend. American troops liberated this camp 60 years ago on April 11, 1945, after more than 50,000 people from different countries died here. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:28 PM ET

Flags of many nations blow in front of the camp entrance of the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eastern Germany, Sunday, April 10, 2005. The commemoration ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald takes place this weekend. American troops liberated this camp 60-years ago on April 11, 1945, after more than 50,000 people from different countries died here. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder lays a wreath in memory of death camp victims during ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of the Buchenwald concentration camp's liberation, in Weimar.(AFP/DDP/Jens-Ulrich Koch)

Sun Apr 10, 2005 2:52 PM ET