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Frankenberg / Dresden (dpa / sn) - Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) has called on the Saxons to take a stand against racism and anti-Semitism “in private and in the office”.
"Anti-Semitism is not an opinion, but a crime," he said on Wednesday at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Sachsenburg concentration camp memorial.
Germany is valued everywhere in the world today because it has a clear stance on Nazi history.
"Basically, a lot of things started here that ultimately led to the Holocaust," said Kretschmer, recalling the role played by the Sachsenburg concentration camp in Frankenberg (Central Saxony district).
About 10,000 people were imprisoned there from 1933 to 1937;
it was considered the forerunner of later concentration camps such as Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen.
It was here that «this inhuman, malicious ideology» began to select and kill people, stressed Kretschmer.
On Wednesday, Holocaust Remembrance Day, the victims of National Socialism will be remembered around the world.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet soldiers liberated the survivors of the Auschwitz extermination camp.
The camp symbolizes the Nazi genocide of millions of people.
Prime Minister Kretschmer and State Parliament President Matthias Rößler wanted to give speeches at a memorial event in the state parliament in the morning.
It was broadcast live on the internet.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210127-99-187971 / 2
Livestream for the event in the state parliament