(JNS) The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum condemned recent vandalism that took place at the site of the former Nazi concentration camp.
“Such [an] incident is, above all, an outrageous attack on the symbol of one of the greatest tragedies in human history and an extremely painful blow to the memory of all the victims of the German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau camp,” the museum said. “We hope that the person or persons who committed this outrageous act will be found and punished.”
It was discovered on Tuesday that nine wooden barracks were spray-painted with anti-Semitic messages in English and German—“two references to the Old Testament, often used by anti-Semites, and [Holocaust] denial slogans,” stated the museum.
The graffiti was reported to the police, and video surveillance from the scene is being reviewed.
The spray-painted messages will be removed after the police have gathered all “necessary documentation” from the site of the vandalism, according to the museum, while also asking the public to contact them with any information pertaining to the incident.
It added that funding for the security system at the Auschwitz memorial is provided by the museum’s budget, which “unfortunately suffered greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield said, “Desecrating Auschwitz is an assault on the significance of the Holocaust and the memory of the one million Jews who were murdered there. Auschwitz-Birkenau is recognized all over the world as both a historic site and a symbol of humanity’s capacity for moral depravity. This act was an attack on Holocaust memory, on Holocaust victims and survivors, and on the Jewish community in particular, as well as on other victim groups whose members were murdered at Auschwitz. But it was also an attack on those who care about the future of humanity and the urgent need to confront Holocaust denial, antisemitism and other forms of hatred.”
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