German teens reported for anti-Semitic songs
November 5, 2019
Three teenagers are under investigation for allegedly playing anti-Semitic songs after a visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp, German police have said.
The investigation for incitement to hatred against the 14-year-olds came after their school in Grünberg, western Germany, reported the incident to police.
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The three teenagers from the Theo Koch School allegedly played anti-Semitic songs on a smartphone and sang along while on a school bus on their way back from the Nazi concentration camp. The incident reportedly took place on October 15.
The students could face sanctions under school law. A spokesperson for the educational authority said disciplinary and pedagogical measures were being considered. At worst, the three pupils could be expelled.
"The school is addressing the case on several different levels," Joerg Keller, the headmaster of the Theo Koch School in the state of Hesse.
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School known for anti-racism efforts
The Theo Koch School has won several awards for its work against racism. Ninth-year students at the school have conducted a four-month project dealing with Nazism for years.
Located in central Germany, Buchenwald served as a Nazi forced labor camp from 1937 to 1945. An estimated 56,000 people died there, including 11,000 Jews and 8,000 Soviet prisoners of war.
Today the former concentration camp is a memorial that serves as a reminder of the crimes of the Nazi dictatorship.
cw,mmc/cmk (dpa, Hessenschau)