The vandalism of a Jewish cemetery in Denmark last year was allegedly ordered by a Swedish neo-Nazi leader, according to text messages revealed at the trial of the alleged perpetrators.
The trial of Soren Lau Kjeldal and Jacob Vullum Andersen, which opened Friday in the city of Randers 120 miles northwest of Copenhagen, implicates a Swedish man, Simon Lindberg, whom prosecutors say was a leader in the Nordic Resistance Movement. According to information presented in court, Lindberg called for a major action against Jews last year on Nov. 9, the anniversary of the 1938 rampage against Jews in Germany known as Kristallnacht.
“Important information. A directive has been issued by Simon Lindberg, all Nordic countries are joining forces for a pan-Nordic action on Kristallnacht,” read one text message that Andersen forwarded to other activists, the Redox news site reported. “We are looking for Jews or businesses owned by real Jews. Not half-Jews or Zionists. Your task for the next month is to find out if there are any Jewish targets in your area. This is top secret information.”
Andersen and Kjeldal have pleaded not guilty.
More than 80 headstones were overturned and defaced with green paint at the Ostre Kirkegard cemetery in Randers last November. The vandalism was reported on Nov. 9. The same day, a family in Silkeborg, about 28 miles from Randers, awoke to find a large sticker bearing a yellow Star of David with the word “Jude” stuck to their mailbox. Jude is the German word for “Jew.”
Last month, Nordic Resistance Movement activists held rallies outside Jewish sites across Scandinavia on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The group is also responsible for the dissolution in 2017 of a Jewish organization in Umea, Sweden.