Dealing with the history of the Soviet Special Camps remains a controversial subject to this day. Many of the inmates had been involved in National Socialism, and some had committed serious crimes. But they, too, suffered injustice in the Special Camps.
Buchenwald was the site of a Nazi concentration camp as well as a Soviet Special Camp. This complicates the subject of remembrance and opens it up to political instrumentalization—for example, in the form of equating the injustices that occurred before and after 1945.
The only way to counter such misuse of history is through a scientifically sound and source-based critical examination of the Special Camps.
After the fall of the GDR, the mass graves of Special Camp No. 2 were marked for the first time. This signpost stood on the former camp grounds in the early 1990s. There was considerable controversy surrounding the designation “internment camp.” For some, it equated the special camps with the Western internment camps, which had drastically better conditions. Other visitors protested against the Special Camps becoming a topic of discussion at the Buchenwald Memorial in general. The scratched-out inscription is evidence of this.
The inscription on the ribbon is the following: “to my beloved grandfather Curt Rühle v. Lilienstern for his 50th anniversary of death † 8. Jan. 1946 / his granddaughter Astrid Rühle / 8. Jan. 1996“ / „He was Major General and a victim of his military loyalty to authority that did not stop at Hitler. I wished he had refused. May he rest in peace.“
In January 1996, the granddaughter of the deceased internee Curt Rühle von Lilienstern (Special Camp No. 2, 1945–1946) attached a wreath ribbon to a tree in the grave field. She advocated for a reflective remembrance based on knowledge of the biographies of the dead.
In April 1997, around ten people protested against the design of the graveyards and how the history of the Special Camp No. 2. was discussed in the almost finished permanent exhibition. They covered 60 steel steles with trash bags and damaged commemoration signs. This action with the title "Throw the NS steles in the trash!" caused a storm of indignation. A charge was brought against the initiators by the Buchenwald Memorial.
Two commemorative steles were inaugurated on the cemetery in Meiningen in 2000. There are 49 names of people engraved in the steles who were interned in the Soviet Special Camp Sachsenhausen. After their release from the camp in spring 1950. they were imprisoned in Untermaßfeld and died there. 2015, the name of Josef Ebenhöh caused a debate. Ebenhöh was a member of the SS from 1938 on and was the leader of the Buchenwald subcamp Penig from 1944 until its liberation. His name was removed from the steles by agreement of the major and the 'Arbeitsgemeinschaft Lager Sachsenhausen 1945-1950 e.V.' in 2018. The cut-out of the name did not lead to any critical discussion of the perpetratorship of Ebenhöh and the search for a appropriate commemoration.
The Member of Parliament of the AfD (Alternative of Germany), Karlheinz Frosch, placed a wreath on the memorial site in Buchenwald a few days before the official commemoration service of the Special Camp. His brother died in Special Camp No. 1 in Sachsenhausen in 1947. The term 'red terror' comes from the time after the October Revolution. It is unsuitable because it hides the prehistory of the National Socialist terror regime and the Nazi past of many internees.
