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Monument to Jews vandalized
Source: Agencies |
September 2, 2011, Friday
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VANDALS have desecrated a monument marking the spot in Poland where hundreds of Jews were burned alive during World War II, scrawling "they were flammable" and a swastika on the memorial.
The message of hate was condemned by Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, who said yesterday there is no place in Polish society for extremists who commit such acts.
The monument, in the town of Jedwabne, honors the victims of July 10, 1941, when about 40 Poles hunted down Jews, shut them in a barn and set it alight. Between 300 and 400 Jews were killed in a notorious case of local people collaborating with the Nazis to kill Jews during Germany's wartime occupation of much of eastern Europe.
The vandals used green paint to spray the symbols of a swastika and "SS" - an elite Nazi section of the military - on the monument, as well as the phrases "I do not apologize for Jedwabne" and "they were flammable."
Sikorski expressed "unequivocal condemnation" of the act of vandalism and expressed solidarity with anyone affected by it. He said he was convinced the perpetrators would be caught and face justice.
The massacre came to light only a decade ago with the 2000 book "Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland," by sociologist Jan Tomasz Gross, which sparked outrage and soul-searching in Poland.
The book led to a government investigation that confirmed that Poles - not Nazi Germans - were to blame for the killings. Poland's then-President Aleksander Kwasniewski apologized for his country's sins, but some Poles today remain in denial that such horrors were committed by their own people.
The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants said they were "horrified" by the desecration.
Meanwhile, Polish officials were yesterday commemorating the anniversary of the German attack on Poland in 1939 that marked the start of World War II.
The message of hate was condemned by Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, who said yesterday there is no place in Polish society for extremists who commit such acts.
The monument, in the town of Jedwabne, honors the victims of July 10, 1941, when about 40 Poles hunted down Jews, shut them in a barn and set it alight. Between 300 and 400 Jews were killed in a notorious case of local people collaborating with the Nazis to kill Jews during Germany's wartime occupation of much of eastern Europe.
The vandals used green paint to spray the symbols of a swastika and "SS" - an elite Nazi section of the military - on the monument, as well as the phrases "I do not apologize for Jedwabne" and "they were flammable."
Sikorski expressed "unequivocal condemnation" of the act of vandalism and expressed solidarity with anyone affected by it. He said he was convinced the perpetrators would be caught and face justice.
The massacre came to light only a decade ago with the 2000 book "Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland," by sociologist Jan Tomasz Gross, which sparked outrage and soul-searching in Poland.
The book led to a government investigation that confirmed that Poles - not Nazi Germans - were to blame for the killings. Poland's then-President Aleksander Kwasniewski apologized for his country's sins, but some Poles today remain in denial that such horrors were committed by their own people.
The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants said they were "horrified" by the desecration.
Meanwhile, Polish officials were yesterday commemorating the anniversary of the German attack on Poland in 1939 that marked the start of World War II.
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