A Holocaust memorial that was built only one year ago in northern Greece was vandalized for the second time last week in the town of Kavala.
Evil without borders: vandals attack memorial in northern Greece https://t.co/GaojTeB55l pic.twitter.com/EFrV12YqE7
— (((WJC))) (@WorldJewishCong) March 31, 2017
The memorial commemorates the 1,484 Jews of the town who were deported to the Treblinka death camp and murdered by the Nazis during World War II.
The anti-Semitic vandals who attacked the memorial on Wednesday, March 29 smashed the glossy marble face of the memorial by using hammers to strike the monument.
Kavala Mayor Dimitra Tsanaka visited the site the next day (Thursday) to inspect the damage and then spoke by phone with David Saltiel, president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) to express her condemnation.
The KIS welcomed the mayor’s prompt reaction, saying in a statement, “At the same time we express our deep concern: these acts of desecration show that anti-Semitism – an anti-Semitism almost without Jews – racism and intolerance survive and lurk everywhere, at every moment.
“Every moral, political or other act of legitimation of the nostalgic pro-Nazis increases the risk of the revival of anti-Semitism and of the expansion of such incidents that threaten the values of a modern and democratic society and darken the prestige of our country. Prosecutors should take all necessary measures to arrest the vandals responsible and bring them to justice.”