Greece’s Jewish community is outraged by the recent desecration of several Jewish monuments in the country.
Last week, unknown assailants spray-painted the façade of the Thessaloniki Holocaust Memorial, a monument dedicated to the 50,000 Jews of Thessaloniki who were exterminated during the Holocaust, with the phrase “With Jews you lose.”
The hate crime was condemned by the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, which stated that: “The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece condemns this new wave of vandal attacks, launched by the followers of bigotry and fanaticism as a statement of their presence in a period when the Greek State, the society and recently the Greek Justice have condemned the neo-Nazi groups as criminal organizations. We are not afraid of them!"
“Tolerating the vandalism of cemeteries and monuments equals tolerating the vandalism of memory and civilization; it represents the toleration of anti-Semitism. We urge the law enforcement authorities to do their utmost to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to Justice. Let us not tolerate behaviours that aim at imposing obscurantism in our country,” the statement continued.
It is recalled Athens’ Jewish cemetery was desecrated on October 5 with anti-Semitic graffiti. “Juden Raus”, meaning “Jews Out” in German, was painted in black on the outside fence of the cemetery in the town of Nikaia, along with a symbol similar to the Golden Dawn swastika.
