Politicians, survivors, and relatives gathered to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp on Sunday (April 6). Naftali Fuerst, President of the International Buchenwald-Dora Committee and Commandos (IKBD), shared his experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust. - REUTERS
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00:00We are celebrating this 80th anniversary in politically difficult times.
00:12Much of what seemed safe and certain in past decades has changed in recent years and months.
00:18And it is changing at a rapid pace every week.
00:21Liberal democracies and the idea of indivisible human rights and a humane society are under
00:27pressure worldwide.
00:29Not least in the USA, which until a few months ago was still a guardian of freedom in Europe.
00:40At the age of 12, I lay alone, dying in Buchenwald after the death march.
00:45Today at the age of 92, I represent 270,000 prisoners of Buchenwald, the dead and the
00:51living.
00:53After 80 years, I carry in my soul the awareness of the murder of 56,000 prisoners and their
00:59cruel deaths by forced labor, starvation, hanging on gallows with their hands tied behind
01:05their backs, by being impaled on hooks in the crematorium's torture cellar or by a shot
01:11in the neck in the so-called doctor's room.