Buchenwald Director Jens-Christian Wagner Warns AfD Would Abolish Memorials

Jens-Christian Wagner, director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, has condemned a decision in Heidenau, Saxony, to stop laying Stolpersteine, calling it part of a broader "memory-cultural climate change." The move was approved with support from the AfD and CDU. In an interview with Der Freitag, Wagner described the action as an attack on Germany's culture of remembrance and an attempt to remove public engagement with Nazi crimes. He argued that if the AfD were to govern, it would have to abolish memorial sites altogether. The Stolpersteine, brass cobblestones commemorating victims of National Socialism, have been a central feature of German Holocaust remembrance. The Heidenau decision, Wagner said, is not an isolated case. The interview, conducted by Eva Kienholz, also touches on the situation in Saxony-Anhalt. Wagner's warning underscores growing tensions over how Germany confronts its Nazi past amid rising far-right influence. The full interview is available in Der Freitag.