Nazi-inspired graffiti found in German town on Holocaust Remembrance Day
On one building, which appeared to be a small rural outhouse, the words "Jew," "Zion," and "Death" were spray painted in red.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSAntisemitic graffiti found in the German town of Heidelberg. April 22, 2020. (photo credit: AFD WATCH HEIDELBERG)
Antisemitic graffiti featuring swastikas and Nazi references has been found scrawled on two buildings in Heidelberg, southwest Germany.On one building, which appeared to be a small rural outhouse, the words "Jew," "Zion" and "Death" were spray painted in red, along with two swastikas. On another, a breeze block shed or barn, the inscription "Merkel is a Jew," referring to Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel was sprayed again in red paint, along with "Asylum seekers to be killed with Zyklon B." (the gas used to kill Jews in the Holocaust). Again, three swastikas were found alongside the text. “In the past year we have witnessed the rise of neo-Nazism in Germany in particular and in Europe in general," Yaacov Hagoel, Deputy Chairman of the World Zionist Organization said."While many work around the world to eradicate antisemitism, unfortunately there are governments that do not invest enough in the issue. Antisemitism must stop here and now. I urge the European countries' ambassadors to call on their government to intervene in the matter and to make the efforts to ensure that what we have witnessed in Heidelberg does not happen again."Antisemitic graffiti found in the German town of Heidelberg. April 22, 2020. (Source: AfD Watch Heidelberg)The graffiti was found just one day after Holocaust Remembrance Day, when Jews around the world commemorated those who died in the atrocity.A Zoom meeting hosted by the Israeli Embassy in Berlin to commemorate the day was disrupted when anti-Israel activists posted pictures of Hitler and shouted antisemitic slogans, forcing Holocaust survivor Zvi Herschel to stop a talk he was giving.According to Israel's Ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, the meeting recommenced after the activists were removed."To dishonour the memory of the Holocaust and the dignity of the survivor is beyond shame and disgrace and shows the blatant antisemitic nature of the activists," Issacharoff.
Heidelberg, near the border with France, is home to 160,000 people, including around 1,000 Jews. The first records of Jews living in the city date back to 1275, and its university was one of the first in Germany to accept Jews. By 1900 a significant proportion of the faculty and student body was Jewish.The town's synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht, the pogrom carried out on November 9, 1938 in which at least 91 Jews were killed in Germany, and around half of the town's 1,100 Jewish residents were deported in the 1940s. However, after the war a small number returned, and a new synagogue was consecrated in 1958.
