PARIS— Two days after the inscription ‘’Juden!’’ (Jews in German) was tagged on the window of Jewish-owned ‘Bagelstein’ shop in Paris, swastikas were discovered on portraits of Holocaust survivor and former minister Simone Veil drawn on two yellow mailboxes in the French capital.
These portraits are a work of artist Christian Guémy made in 2018 when Simone Veil’s e coffin was buried in the Pantheon, France’s burial place for some of its most illustrious citizens. Veil, who survived Auschwitz, died in 2017.
On social media The artist denounced a ‘’very shocking act of cowardice.’’ In a tweet, the town hall of the 13th district of Paris, where the swastikas were found, reacted by evoking an act “filthy, abject and especially coward.” ‘’After the degradation of a Bagelstein shop this weekend, the anti-Semites are now targeting Simone Veil. We will file a complaint. Let’s all be mobilized against hatred,’’ it said.
Several other anti-Semitic tags have been discovered in various locations of Paris over the weekend.
On Saturday, the word “Juden!” was discovered spray-painted in yellow letters on the window of a ‘Bagelstein’ store.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the incident was being treated as incitement to racial hatred. The management of the ‘Bagelstein’ chain had filed a complaint with police after the graffiti was found.
Some have established a link between the latest antisemitic incidents in Paris and the ‘’yellow vests’’ anti-government protests and demonstrations which in some cases were marred by antisemitic incidents.