Greek Memorial to Holocaust Victims Is Vandalized

Always Remember: Participants in a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from Greece toss flowers on the railroad tracks in the city of Thessaloniki. Image by getty images

A memorial to the 13,000 Greek Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust has been desecrated with Nazi images.

The memorial, which sits next to a children’s playground erected in their memory in central Athens, was defaced earlier this month with a Nazi swastika and Nazi SS signs, according to the Jewish Community of Athens.

“All that (the vandals) manage to do is unite us together against fascism, racism and intolerance,” the community said in a statement issued on Sunday.

There have been several instances of vandalism over the last year in Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials in Greece.

A recent Anti-Defamation League survey showed that Greece has Europe’s highest rate of anti-Semitic attitudes, with 69 percent of Greeks espousing anti-Semitic views. That is nearly twice the rate of the next highest country, France, with 37 percent.

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