Neo-Nazis vandalized the external surrounding walls of a Jewish cemetery with antisemitic graffiti in Athens, the Central Board of Jewish communities in Greece (KIS) announced.
Antisemitic slogans and a Nazi symbol were discovered on a stone fence in Nikaia, a southwestern suburb of Athens. The graffiti included the phrase “Juden raus,” German for “Jews get out,” and the symbol of the elite SS Nazi force.
‘’These are 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,’’ the Central Board said. .
‘’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.’’
‘’We express the certainty that the Greek State will take all necessary measures so that the perpetrators will be arrested and face justice,’’ it said.
Government spokesman Stelios Petsas stated: “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”.
Greek Foreign Minister Nokos Dendias said: “The attack against the Jewish cemetery in Athens causes sorrow and repugnance. Nazism and its followers have no place in our society, in any society”.
The Greek Minister of Education, Niki Kerameus tweeted: “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”.