THE NEW YORK TIMES: The police and the Auschwitz Memorial are urging anyone with knowledge of the vandalism to come forward.
Vandals sprayed antisemitic slogans and phrases denying the Holocaust in English and German on nine wooden barracks at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial site, in what officials there called “an outrageous attack on the symbol of one of the greatest tragedies in human history.”
The police in Oswiecim, the town in southern Poland where the concentration camp sits, said on Wednesday they were analyzing footage taken by security cameras on the site and looking for anyone who could give them information about the vandals, who they believe struck between 8 a.m. and noon on Tuesday. The barracks, which were defaced with black paint, housed men during the Holocaust and are near the Gate of Death in the Birkenau death camp. The police declined to give any further details about the slurs.
The Auschwitz Memorial site, in the statement published on its Twitter account, further condemned the graffiti as “an extremely painful blow to the memory of all the victims” who perished at the camp.
More than 1.1 million people, the majority of them Jews, perished in gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, or from starvation, cold and disease.
Countries across Europe have witnessed an increase in antisemitism online and among people protesting at demonstrations against the restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, with observers expressing concern that Jews increasingly feel unsafe in the European Union. The European Commission has earmarked 24 million euros, almost $28 million, to increase protection around synagogues and other Jewish events or sites. » | Melissa Eddy | Wednesday, October 6, 2021
