Ex-German President’s chilling warning: Is Nazism making a comeback?

At a poignant ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of Buchenwald’s liberation, former German President Christian Wulff delivered a stark warning about the resurgence of far-right extremism, drawing unsettling parallels to the conditions that fueled the Nazis’ ascent. Speaking in Weimar on Sunday, near the site of one of Germany’s earliest concentration camps, Wulff addressed Holocaust survivors and dignitaries.

He said, “Due to the brutalization and radicalization and a worldwide shift to the right, I can now—and this makes me uneasy—imagine more clearly how this could have happened back then.” He underscored Germany’s unending duty, stating, “We bear a permanent, ongoing, eternal responsibility from this because evil must never be allowed to prevail again.”

Buchenwald, established in 1937, sprawled over 400,000 square meters, encircled by 3,500 meters of electrified barbed wire, making it one of the largest camps within Nazi Germany’s 1937 borders. The facility included 33 wooden barracks, a crematorium, and the notorious “Bunker,” a torture site emblematic of the regime’s cruelty.

Over its eight-year existence, it confined about 277,800 people from more than 50 nations, subjecting them to grueling labor, medical experiments, and executions. At least 56,000 perished there, including an estimated 11,000 Jews, with thousands more dying after being shipped to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

The camp’s liberation came on April 11, 1945, when prisoners seized control in anticipation of Allied arrival. That afternoon, U.S. troops from the 6th Armored Division of the Third Army entered, discovering over 21,000 survivors amid the horrors.

Now a memorial and museum, Buchenwald stands as a testament to the six million Jewish lives lost in the Holocaust. Wulff’s remarks cast a shadow over the anniversary, urging vigilance as the site’s grim history echoes in today’s rising extremism, a reminder of the fragility of peace and the enduring need to confront hatred head-on.