In a rather appalling move, it has come to light that 21 refugees who fled to Europe are currently being held in Buchenwald – a former Nazi concentration camp where thousands were horrifically killed during WWII.
According to RT News:
The building is reportedly equipped with basic cooking facilities and bunk beds.
“It is an emergency solution, but it is unavoidable,” the mayor of Berlin’s Mitte district, Christian Hanke, told The Daily Mail. “There is a lot of room in the hangars.”
20-year-old Abdurahman Massa from northern Eritrea told The Daily Express that he doesn’t mind what the building was before.
“This is good for me,” he added.
Another refugee identified as Diaoyre, from Algeria, said he’d been living in the building for one week, and it’s “good,”adding “many others don’t even have this.”
The refugees are provided with 135 euros monthly, to spend on food and other essentials.
#BREAKING: #Refugees who fled to Europe living in former #Nazi barracks at #Buchenwald (via @DailyMailUK) pic.twitter.com/Yzkf2XzsTA
— Or Ravid אור רביד (@OrRavid) September 12, 2015
Troppi ‘#profughi ‘ in #Germania : riapre #Buchenwald pic.twitter.com/ERBIVhiVsy
— uri langer (@meburi) September 11, 2015
In particular, Der Spiegel newspaper quoted Birgit Naujoks, head of the refugee council in North Rhine-Westphalia state, calling the plan “alarming and disconcerting — at the very least insensitive.”
About 250,000 people were held in Buchenwald in from 1937 until 1945, with prisoners regularly tortured: the camp was infamous for the terrifying medical experiments on people. For instance, SS medics tried to “cure” homosexuality with hormonal transplants, tested their typhoid and cholera on the inmates.
At least 55,000 people are recorded as having died in the camp.