Seven trees dedicated to the victims of the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp have been chopped down in a “depraved and appalling” attack.

The trees were planted along a route outside the camp along which prisoners of the Nazis were taken.

One of the trees attacked was dedicated to the children murdered at the camp. The other six trees were planted by the wives, children, and grandchildren of victims of the Nazi genocide.

The foundation that runs the memorial tweeted: “We are appalled at the deliberate attack on remembrance.”

FYGvfyTXwAogFw7

Seven trees along a route which was walked by those murdered by the Nazis have been cut down (Image: @Buchenwald_Dora / Twitter)

Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said: “Attacking the sites where the Holocaust took place is depraved and appalling. It is deeply upsetting for Holocaust survivors and their families, many of whom lost relatives and loved ones in Buchenwald.

“As the Holocaust fades from living memory, sites like Buchenwald must stand as a memorial to Jews murdered there simply because they were Jewish.”

The Buchenwald concentration camp was established in 1937, and more than 56,000 of the 280,000 inmates held there were killed by the Nazis or died as a result of illness , hunger, or medical experiments before the camp was liberated on April 11, 1945.

Some of the last living survivors gathered for a ceremony last April to mark the moment of liberation by the U.S. 89th Infantry Division.

Only 16 survivors of the camp are still alive today.