11 April 2023 marked the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. On the occasion of this historical date, Shoah survivor Naftali Fürst gave an interview in SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. Two days later, the 90-year-old Israeli visited the Buchenwald Memorial together with his wife, Tova Hegmann.
Around 35 BVB fans from the association of Thuringian fan clubs and a delegation from Borussia Dortmund consisting of employees from the departments of fan affairs, corporate responsibility and the BORUSSEUM were also present. The jointly organised event focused was headlined by interactive workshop on the historical context of the life of Naftali Fürst, a tour of the memorial site and an in-depth exchange with the survivor himself.
More information on the interview with the Holocaust survivor in SIGNAL IDUNA PARK is available here.
Background
Naftali Fürst comes from a Slovakian Jewish family. From 1942, he, his big brother Shmuel and his parents were imprisoned in the Sereď labour camp. From there, they were deported by the Germans to Auschwitz in November 1944, where the family was separated: The two brothers were sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in an “evacuation transport”. While Naftali Fürst was there to experience the liberation of the camp months later, the SS deported his brother to Theresienstadt in April 1945.
In the summer of 1945, Naftali Fürst returned to Bratislava and was miraculously reunited his brother and his parents. In 1949, they emigrated to Israel and found a new home in Kibbutz Maanit.
In 2005, Naftali Fürst stepped back on German soil again for the first time as he visited the Buchenwald memorial site to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation. In Israel, he is involved in the historical educational work of Yad Vashem. He is chairman of the advisory board of former prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp and president of the International Committee Buchenwald Dora and Commandos (IKBD).