A hideous graffiti, that last Friday, October 16, 2020, defaced the Holocaust Monument of Thessaloniki, was added to the chain of desecrations, threats and vandalism that occurred last week in Greece: “Juden raus” graffiti at the Jewish Cemetery of Athens, “Death to Israel” at the Jewish Cemetery of Thessaloniki, four vandalized tombs at the Jewish Cemetery of Rhodes, and this most recent “With Jews you lose” graffiti, spray-painted on the façade of the Monument dedicated to the 50.000 Jews of Thessaloniki who were exterminated during the Holocaust.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece condemns this new wave of vandal attacks, launched by the followers of bigotry and fanaticism as a statement of their presence in a period when the Greek State, the society and recently the Greek Justice have condemned the neo-Nazi groups as criminal organizations. We are not afraid of them!

Tolerating the vandalism of cemeteries and monuments equals tolerating the vandalism of memory and civilization; it represents the toleration of anti-Semitism. We urge the law enforcement authorities to do their utmost to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to Justice. Let us not tolerate behaviors that aim at imposing obscurantism in our country.

Athens, October 19, 2020