Two swastikas have been discovered at a memorial to the victims of the Shoah that had been inaugurated at the end of January in Strasbourg.
‘Two swastikas were discovered on Allée des Justes, bordering the former synagogue and the memorial garden’ in the city centre, Strasbourg Mayor Jeanne Barseghian said in a statement on Monday, condemning the act, perpetrated just days fore the 8 May Victory Day commemorations, as "anti-Semitic."
This garden, inaugurated on 27 January, was created on the site of the building, which had been burnt down by the Nazis and destroyed during the Second World War. It features a wall with the names of the victims of the Shoah in the Bas-Rhin region.
The swastikas had been erased by early afternoon.
‘That such anti-Semitic acts should occur here, just a few days before the commemoration of 8 May, is deeply shocking," Ms Barseghian said, referring to the 80th anniversary of the 1945 Allied victory over Nazism.
She stressed that "all the necessary measures are being taken to restore this place of remembrance and identify the person or persons responsible for these anti-Semitic acts."
The City of Strasbourg plans to lodge a complaint.
When contacted by French news agency AFP, Strasbourg Public Prosecutor Clarisse Taron confirmed the facts and said that an investigation was underway.
