The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece expresses the dismay of the Greek Jewry for the vandal attack against the Holocaust Monument of Kastoria, erected to remind of the 1.000 Jews of the city deported and exterminated in Auschwitz by the Nazis. Using back spray-paint to deface the inscription on the Monument, the fanatic preachers of hatred aimed both at erasing the memory of the once flourishing Jewish community and at destroying the symbolisms that the Monuments transmits.

They got the best response through the reaction of the local society, with the official condemnation of the Mayor of Kastoria as well as the prompt reaction of the motivated citizens who cleaned the monument. The law enforcement authorities have to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to Justice.

Thirteen cases of vandalism against Jewish targets were registered within 2018. The outburst of intolerance, the vandal attacks against monuments and sacred sites, intensify the need to realize that antisemitism is only the beginning of the decadence of a society that in order to be protected by the followers of obscurantism has the obligation to transmit knowledge and memory so as to prevent new crimes against humanity.

Athens, December 27, 2018

Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece