Greek pesident visits WWII Natzweiler concentration camp
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou visited the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp on Thursday.
The former camp is in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace. It was the only Nazi concentration camp in France. About 17,000 people were killed there by the Nazis.
Sakellaropoulou, who in her speech at the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe the day before had emphatically condemned racist aims and speech of all kinds, was given a tour of the museum and unveiled a memorial plaque dedicated to the memory of Greek victims.
She also visited the gas chamber and laid a wreath at an adjacent monument, listing all the victims, including the Greek Jews who died there.
The Natzweiler camp was established in spring 1941 and was intended primarily for people active in European resistance movements.
Soviet prisoners of war, Jews, Roma, homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses were also imprisoned there.
The prisoners worked as slaves in the service of the Reich, and from 1944 were forced to work for the Nazi war industry.
