Paris – A monument marking the site of a synagogue destroyed during the Nazi occupation of France was found vandalised on Saturday, authorities in the eastern city of Strasbourg said.
The marble slab on the site of the old synagogue, set on fire by Hitler Youth members in 1940 and later demolished, had been pushed off its base, photographs published by regional newspaper Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace showed.
Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries told France 3 Television that it was clearly an anti-Semitic act.
The slab “must weigh 300 or 400 kilogrammes,’’ Ries said. “It wasn’t pushed off by a single individual.’’
The vandalism was the latest in a string of apparently anti-Semitic incidents that have drawn condemnation from French authorities and the country’s Jewish community, thought to be the biggest in Europe.
In February, 12 graves were painted with Nazi swastikas in a Jewish cemetery in a village near Strasbourg.
Anti-Semitic vandalism was also reported in Paris.
Thousands of people rallied in central Paris to condemn anti-Semitism.
President Emmanuel Macron promised a new law against online hate crime and asked Interior Minister Christophe Castaner to dissolve organisations inciting hatred and violence.
“I say once again: Enough!’’, Ries wrote on Facebook on Saturday after visiting the vandalised memorial in Strasbourg.
(dpa/NAN)
