A memorial to 1,200 Greek victims of the Holocaust from the northern Greek city of Drama was vandalized with Christian graffiti.
The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded immediately, condemning the vandalism, which also targeted a plaque remembering the city’s Jewish presence at a Tobacco factory.
“Heinous acts that are an affront to the memory of the victims of Nazi brutality and to Greek culture, said the Ministry in a statement. “We reiterate the importance of rejecting racism, hatred and fanaticism and the need to defend our moral values.”
Police said the incident took place on the night of December 28. In addition to Christian spray-painted graffiti, the perpetrator(s) broke the marble on the memorial.
Similar markings were made on a marble plaque at a tobacco factory that marked the location where more than 1,200 Jews from Drama were rounded up on March 3, 1943 and herded on to trains to Treblinka where the majority were murdered.
The memorial, in the city’s St. Barbara Square, and the plaque at the Tobacco factory, were erected in 1999 by the municipality and the Jewish community in Greece, to recognize a once-thriving community that ceased to exist after the Holocaust.
The latest incidents close a disturbing year that experienced an increase in attacks against Jewish sites in Greece, including similar attacks in Athens, Rhodes and Thessaloniki in October and Larissa in December.
