Vandals spray Nazi symbols on dozens of gravestones at Jewish cemetery in Poland

[oberliner]

WARSAW, Poland: Vandals spray painted swastikas and other Nazi symbols on about 100 gravestones at a large Jewish cemetery in Poland, police said Monday.

Visitors to the cemetery in the southern city of Czestochowa discovered the damage on Sunday and police have not yet found the culprits, said Silesia regional police spokesman Andrzej Gaska.

"This is one of the biggest acts of destruction in years," said Jan Gebert, spokesman for the Jewish community in Warsaw. "In fact, I can't think of any other cases in Europe that have been this big."

The vandals used black spray paint to tag the gravestones with the letters SS, swastikas, and the slogan "Jews Out" written in German.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/06/europe/EU-GEN-Poland-Jewish-Cemetery.php

[rockymountaindem]

1. Surprise surprise

:eyes:

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Oh, it's just kids being kids

Or maybe it's a bad translation.

And what about the Palestinians, huh?

(Plus a few more I've missed.)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. How Did This Turn Into An Israeli/Palestinian Thing?

Bigotry is wrong regardless of the target...

[DavidDvorkin]

17. It always does

I'm just anticipating.

[Balbus]

12. I don't think spray-painting swastikas on Palestinian tombstones would have the same impact.

But who knows :shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. So is this a hate crime or not?

Because there was a similar incident last week or so with a lot of people saying it was "ridiculous" to call it a hate crime.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. Unless they can prove that they were dumb kids that thought it was funny, it's a hate crime

[H2O Man]

4. Sick.

The sooner that they are caught and face stiff legal consequences, the better.

[Gold Metal Flake]

5. Surveillance equipment is cheap these days.

I strongly suggest all entities providing services to ethnic communities and socio/legal/political assistance to those seeking redress for opression of any kind to invest in monitoring and recording equipment. I expect attacks by conservative elements of all stripe to increase and to become more violent going forward.

[noonwitch]

7. There's some totally obscene graffiti at a jewish cemetary in Detroit

On Van Dyke, near Lynch. On the wall facing the street, it says "Cinnamon, I take it in the a@%. I'm a freak". Everytime I pass it I think how awful that is for the people who still visit their loved ones there.

[rockymountaindem]

8. Can't they clean it up?

The Jewish cemetary where some of my ancestors are buried is like a fortress with a big brick wall and razor wire on top.

[oberliner]

21. Jewish Cemetery Cleaned of Nazi Symbols

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's chief rabbi and a town mayor joined students cleaning gravestones Tuesday at a Jewish cemetery that vandals had desecrated with Nazi symbols.

Rabbi Michael Schudrich said that he and Tadeusz Wrona, mayor of the southern city of Czestochowa, joined about 20 Polish art students who spent two hours scrubbing black paint off some of 100 gravestones at the city's Jewish cemetery.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/07/AR2007080701294.html

Good work!

[marmar]

9. Poland has got some severe Neo-Nazi issues....

Wasn't it in Warsaw that a gay pride parade had to be stopped because of all the violent skinhead protestors? :scared:

[rockymountaindem]

10. There were some threads about that here

Aparently gays are fleeing Poland by the thousands.

[BlooInBloo]

13. Doesn't Germany have exceedingly harsh laws against this sort of behavior?

(Getting at: it doesn't appear as though Poland take this sort of thing all that seriously, which is odd, given that they were on the receiving end of a lot of Nazism.)

[spindoctor]

14. Yes, Germany does. For obvious reasons n/t

[spindoctor]

15. It happens in most European countries on a regular basis

Usually they are just teenagers acting stupid.

"I hate Illinois nazis" - Jake Blues

[Madspirit]

16. 5th k&r

Yes, this is a hate crime.
Lee

[LeeDemWebmaster]

18. Sad

This is absurd that this kind of behavior still takes place. It is a true shame that so many people hate others past so ly on their race.

[NaturalHigh]

19. Worthless bastards.

[LeftishBrit]

20. Horrible

There are nasty far-right youngsters (and older people too) everywhere; but at the moment, Poland seems to be having more than its share of trouble with right-wing bigotry.