The followers of the neo-Nazi organizations strike again and remind us of their hatred against the Jews. Neo-Nazis vandalized the external surrounding walls of the Jewish cemetery of Athens with the same slogans the Nazis used 80 years ago in order to deport millions of Jews from their homes and exterminate six million in the gas chambers, amongst whom 60.000 Greek Jews.

We welcome the prompt reaction of the Athens Mayor, Kostas Bakoyannis, who put in motion the Municipality’s competent authorities that immediately erased the hideous slogans.

Nazism has no place in our democracy mainly because it promotes its destruction along with the prevalence of the total violation of human rights. We express the certainty that the Greek State will take all necessary measures so that the perpetrators will be arrested and face justice. 

We will not be intimidated. Zero tolerance for Nazism.

Altogether, citizens regardless of religion, law enforcement and justice authorities have to be in alert and make sure that the Nazi crimes against humanity will never be committed again. Antisemitism lays in the very root of the “absolute evil” that Nazism expresses. It starts with the Jews but never stops at them. Antisemitism targets the fundamental human rights that Europe needs to safeguard through concrete measures both in the context of Justice and Education.

Athens, October 5, 2020

Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece

REACTIONS BY THE GREEK GOVERNMENT

-Tweet by the MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS NIKOS DENDIAS:

“The vandal attack against the Jewish cemetery in Athens causes sorrow and repugnance. Nazism and its followers have no place in our society, in any society”.

-Announcement of the GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN STELIOS PETSAS:

 “The vandalism of the Jewish cemetery of Athens with Nazi slogans causes dismay to every democratic citizen. Nazism, antisemitism and their followers have no place in Greece and they will not be tolerated. The State has taken all necessary measures in order to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice”.

-Tweet by the MINISTER OF EDUCATION NIKI KERAMEUS:

“I have contacted the President of the Jewish Community of Athens and expressed our condemnation for the desecration of the Jewish Cemetery of Athens as well as our commitment that the Greek Ministry of Education will persistently continue with its practices to combat antisemitism”.

-Tweet by the MINISTER OF DEVELOPMENT ADONIS GEORGIADIS:

“Shame! This by no means expresses the feelings of the Greek people”

-Tweets by the EMBASSY OF ISRAEL in Greece. In three separate tweets, the embassy wrote:
“The heinous anti-Semitic graffiti found today on the walls of the Athens Jewish Cemetery during Jewish High Holidays is yet another reminder of the existence of evil”. “Together with many other proud Greek voices we stand against hate, racism and extremism based on ignorance and prejudice”. “We are certain of a prompt Greek authorities’ reaction and have full confidence such acts will not be tolerated. Hate will not deter us.” 

-TWEET by the GERMAN AMBASSADOR: I join all my Greek friends in their resounding condemnation of such barbarism. Antisemitism must have no place in our sicieties, in whatever language it is expressed.

RELEVANT:

INTERPARLIAMENTARY PRESENCE AT THE ATHENS JEWISH CEMETERY EXPRESSES SOLIDARITY IN THE AFTERMATH OF “JUDEN RAUS” GRAFFITI

-AMNA, 6.10.2020
- e-KATHIMERINI, 6.10.2020