The historian running the memorial at Germany’s former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald is no stranger to hate crime and threats, but he fears more trouble ahead after the far-right AfD’s election triumph.
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Jens-Christian Wagner says the rise of the anti-immigration party, which won Thuringia state elections with 33 per cent of the vote on Sunday, reflects a hardening of attitudes that could spell new dangers.
“My colleagues and I have been upset and depressed since Sunday evening,” said the director of the foundation that administers the site.
Wagner said he worries about worse to come after a spate of attacks in recent years, both on social media networks that have been “flooded with revisionist content” and on site, including swastika graffiti.