A skinhead who led a group of youths in the July 23 desecration of the Buchenwald concentration camp was sentenced last week to 20 months in jail by a juvenile court in the eastern German city of Weimar.
Five other defendants in the case, all of whom were minors, were found guilty of disturbing the peace and received suspended sentences or monetary fines. Two of the eight defendants were acquitted.
On the night of July 23, a group of 22 skinheads broke into the site of the former Buchenwald concentration camp, chanting Nazi slogans such as “Heil Hitler” and “Sieg Heil” and smashing windows of former barrack sites at the camp. The group also threatened to set on fire a worker there who attempted to stop them.
All but one of the defendants denied the charges against them. One youth who confessed to having threatened to burn the camp worker had sent the worker a letter apologizing for the incident.
The vandalism at Buchenwald provoked protests from around the world as well as in Germany itself, where Chancellor Helmut Kohl called for severe punishments for the defendants.
Fourteen more skinheads are scheduled to come before the court to stand trial on similar charges.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
