A Paris Holocaust memorial for the French people who risked their lives to save Jews was vandalized with painted red hands on Monday night, the Shoah Memorial said on Tuesday.
The Wall of the Righteous and other sites in the neighborhood were defaced by hooded individuals, according to the Holocaust Memorial Foundation. The Shoah Memorial said that a complaint had been filed with the police and that an investigation is underway.
Activist group Nous Vivrons shared on Instagram a picture of a building in the Marais district covered in the same red hands.
“We are outraged by this cowardly and hateful act, regardless of the perpetrators and the meaning of these red hands,” said the Shoah Memorial.
Why the red hands?
Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) president Yonathan Arfi shared a photograph of the vandalism on social media, claiming that the graffiti was meant to evoke the lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah during the Second intifada in October 2000. Instead, this symbol has recently become associated with Pro-Palestinian/Hamas activists who have used the symbol of red hands in activist efforts calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, asserting that Israelis are spilling Palestinian blood.
CRIF vice-president Nathalie Beizermann said that the red hands “are the signature of those who advocate [to spread] the terrorism that struck Israel and attacks all over the world. It is an insult to memory by uneducated people who trample on our democracies.”The Shoah Memorial said that the vandalism of the wall honoring 3,900 French Righteous Among the Nations occurred on the anniversary of the May 1942 transfer of 3,700 Jews from Paris to camps in the Loiret before transportation to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.Shoah Memorial director Jacques Fredj said the act showed the necessity of educational and historical organization more than ever.
“We are acting against intolerance and ignorance in a moment of confusion and exploitation of the history of the Shoah and genocides,” said Fredj. “We will continue to deploy and amplify our work of education and pedagogy against barbarism, against antisemitism, and all forms of intolerance.”French President Emmanuel Macron said that the vandalism undermined the memory of French heroes and the victims of the Holocaust.“The Republic, as always, will remain inflexible in the face of odious antisemitism,” said Macron.The Union of Jewish Youth said on social media that the graffiti was “not only an insult to the murdered Jews but to all French people who fought against Nazism.”The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany said on X that the vandalism was an attack by anti-Israel activists.Nous Vivrons called for their fellow countrymen not to allow activists to “spit on those who have brought honor to France.”“The link between anti-Zionism and antisemitism can no longer be in doubt,” said the activist group.“This attack deeply affects society as a whole,” said the German Claims Conference chapter. “It affects the survivors of the Holocaust and the righteous who live in France today and who saved the Jews from persecution by the Nazis and their collaborators at risk to their lives.”European March of the Living director Michel Gourary called on authorities in France and Europe to crack down on the antisemitism that was spreading across the continent like wildfire.“The desecration of the main Holocaust memorial in Paris is yet a new depressing low, and another stark reminder about the urgent need for Holocaust education in Europe and beyond,” said Gourary.The World Jewish Congress said that the vandalism was “shameful.”“Our societies need to wake up and understand the meaning and intentions behind these actions,” said WJC.