German police prevent group from removing installation with ashes of Holocaust victims
A black column supposedly containing the ashes of victims of the World War II Nazi dictatorship stands at a memorial erected by the Center for Political Beauty opposite the Reichstag on December 3, 2019 in Berlin, Germany. Image by Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
(JTA) — German police prevented an activist group from removing an art installation believed to contain the ashes of victims of the Nazis.
About 20 members of a group called the Performance Art Committee attempted to remove the gray cylindrical column erected in early December, the Associated Press reported Sunday. The column, said to contain soil from 23 sites across Germany, Poland and Ukraine, was placed in front of the German parliament by the left-wing Center for Political Beauty last month. Lab results found traces of human remains in over 70 percent of the 240 samples, the committee said in a statement.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany and the International Auschwitz Committee have condemned the urn.
The Center for Political Beauty later apologized for hurting the feelings of Holocaust survivors and the families of victims. It did not say what it plans to do with the soil samples when the installation is ultimately dismantled, but said it was open to suggestions.
A member of the group filed a criminal complaint for property damage following Sunday’s attempt to remove the installation, the AP reported.
The post German police prevent activist group from removing installation with ashes of Holocaust victims appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
