Polish Vandals Desecrate Jewish Cemetery

By JTA June 20, 2012

Vandals painted Nazi and racist symbols on the fence of a Jewish cemetery in southern Poland.

Swastikas, Celtic crosses and symbols of the National Polish Revival, an anti-Semitic organization, were painted on columns of the fence of the Jewish cemetery in Starachowice.

Cemetery caretaker Maciej Frankiewicz discovered the devastation, called police and began repairing the fence. Vandals left the tombstones untouched, though several years ago tombstones at the same cemetery were defaced.

Jews from Starachowice, Wierzbnik and surrounding towns are buried in the cemetery. During World War II, Nazis carried out mass executions there, and bodies of the victims were buried in unmarked graves which still have not been located

The cemetery in Starachowice is entered in the country’s register of protected monuments.

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