An anti-Semitic incident occurs in the memorial of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Buildings are smeared with slogans. The police are investigating.
Oświęcim – In the Nazi memorial site Auschwitz-Birkenau, several historical buildings have been smeared with anti-Semitic slogans. The memorial made the case of anti-Semitism public on Tuesday (October 5th, 2021).
It was a “hideous attack on the symbol of one of the greatest tragedies in human history and an extremely painful blow to the memory of all the victims” who died in Germany’s largest extermination camp in World War II, according to a statement on Twitter.
Auschwitz memorial: barracks smeared with anti-Semitic slogans
Nine wooden barracks were sprayed with slogans in English and German, reports the Auschwitz Memorial. Some of them refer to passages of the Bible from the Old Testament that are often quoted by anti-Semites. Other sayings denied the Holocaust, i.e. the systematic murder of over six million Jews by the Nazis.
After the anti-Semitic vandalism in the Nazi memorial site Auschwitz-Birkenau, the police were called in. Recordings from surveillance cameras are evaluated and the graffiti examined graphically, announced the memorial. In addition, possible witnesses of the incident are asked to report. In the published statement, the memorial especially asks for photos that were taken on Tuesday (October 5th, 2021) in the morning in the area of the gate and in sector BIIa.
Anti-Semitic slogans at the Auschwitz Memorial: Police investigate, then restoration follows
As soon as the police have documented the anti-Semitic slogans, the conservators will remove the graffiti inside the Auschwitz memorial and restore the barracks, the statement said.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, as the largest extermination camp of the Nazis, has burned into global consciousness as a synonym for the Holocaust and the epitome of evil. In the camp, about 70 kilometers from Krakow, the Nazis murdered more than a million people. Most of those killed were people of Jewish faith, but the victims also included Sinti and Roma, Poles and homosexuals.
Anti-Semitic slogans at the Auschwitz Memorial are not the first case of vandalism
The anti-Semitic slogans at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial are not the first case of vandalism. Smearings had often been left on the walls and in wooden cots. In 2009 the writing “Arbeit macht frei” was stolen from the former concentration camp.
In Leipzig there was also a suspected anti-Semitic incident the day before, which affected the musician Gil Ofarim. (Max Schäfer with dpa)
