Swastika and Nazi SS symbol daubed on wall of Jewish cemetery near Auschwitz
Auschwitz Museum said the graffiti was 'painful' and a 'reminder that we need to keep fighting against all forms of hatred'
An unidentified individual scrawled a swastika and the Nazi SS symbol on a wall of a Jewish cemetery in the city of Oświęcim, Poland, near the site of the former Auschwitz concentration camp.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum posted a picture of the graffiti on its Twitter account Sunday, noting it was near the former death camp that the Nazis built there in 1940, and where they murdered more than a million Jews.
The incident is “painful” and a reminder that “we need to keep fighting against all forms of hatred,” the museum wrote. The images were removed shortly after they were discovered.
The Nazis murdered three million non-Jews in occupied Poland, in addition to three million Jewish Poles — half of all the Jews they had murdered throughout Europe.
Poland has seen a resurgence in right-wing nationalist sentiment in recent years. However, the glorification of Nazi ideology and symbols, which is common throughout much of Eastern Europe and beyond, is relatively rare in Poland.
The Auschwitz Museum said the graffiti had been removed:
This cemetery is well taken care of by the Auschwitz Jewish Center & local community. The wall was cleaned immediately, but together we need to keep fighting against all forms of hatred. The Polish law prosecutes such acts. We hope the Police will identify people responsible. pic.twitter.com/w8B9jBNyAz
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) January 10, 2021
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