Antisemitic graffiti denying the Holocaust was discovered at the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum staff discovered antisemitic graffiti at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau site, the largest of the 40 camps of the former Nazi complex. The phrases and slogans denying the Holocaust are sprayed all over nine barracks. The staff declared the antisemitic vandalism „an outrageous attack on the symbol of one of the great tragedies in human history and an extremely painful blow to the memory of all the victims of the German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.”
The police are now investigating the incident and call upon anyone who might have been around the site on Tuesday morning, especially near the „Gate of Death,” the entrance at Birkenau and the wooden barracks. The conservators of the memorial will remove the offensive graffiti once the police have compiled all the necessary documentation.
According to the statement of the management, the security system is „constantly being expanded,” yet the museum’s budget was severely hit by the pandemic. Therefore, closing the site fully is not an option at present.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum preserves the Nazi concentration and extermination camp set up on occupied Polish soil by the Germans during World War II in 1940. By 1942, it became the biggest extermination camp, carrying out the Nazi plan, „Endlösung der Judenfrage,” to murder all European Jews. During its four-and-a-half-year-long operation, at least 1.1 million people were murdered there, including one million Jews.
The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel declared the vandalism an „attack not only on the memory of the victims, but also on the survivors and any person with a conscience.”
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