CRI听力:People Mark 70th Anniversary of Buchenwald Camp Liberation

A minute of silence was held at the Buchenwald memorial on Saturday, exactly 70 years after the concentration camp was liberated at 3.15 pm on 11 April 1945.

Survivors and liberators gathered at the former roll call square to remember the victims and lay down flowers.

Klaus Trostorff, 94-year-old Buchenwald survivor and former director of Buchenwald memorial, is amid a group of people holding a red rose.

"First of all, I am glad that I survived, that I could survive this. It was difficult, but I have also had a lot of friends and people who helped me."

Buchenwald survivor Henry Oster visited the site for the first time since its liberation.

"I thought it would be easier after 70 years, but the memories take over the feeling one hid for 70 years, and it was difficult for me and my family (coming to Buchenwald), but very precious."

Also on Saturday, Catalonian officials and the Spanish Ambassador to Germany, Pablo Garcia-Berdoy, unveiled a memorial stone for Spanish Republicans who died in the camp.

"It is a very important, historical fact to remember that many Spanish people died in concentration camps during the Second World War and before that, and that many of them were just fighters for freedom and tried to do their best as European citizens and as Spaniards. And I think it the tragedy is sometimes that we forget their memory."

Around 250,000 prisoners were held at Buchenwald from its opening in July 1937 to its liberation.

An estimated 56,000 people were killed, including political prisoners, people dubbed "asocial" by the Nazis, Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti and Roma, and approximately 11,000 Jews.

It was the first major concentration camp entered by American forces at the end of World War II.

The liberation of the Buchenwald camp brought an end to the long ordeal of around 21,000 surviving prisoners.

For CRI, Im Sophie Williams.