Freller: Würzburg monument damage a "disgrace"
The director of the Bavarian Memorials Foundation, Karl Freller, has described the damage to the memorial to the deported Jews in Würzburg as a "disgrace". "This memorial is dedicated to those Jews from the city of Würzburg and from Lower Franconia who were deprived of their right to life between 1941 and 1944," Freller emphasized on Sunday. Of the 2069 people who were deported from Würzburg, just 63 survived. "How hateful towards Jews must a person be to desecrate the memory of those murdered?" asked Freller.
On Friday, it had become known that a previously unknown perpetrator had damaged the memorial to Jewish victims of National Socialism in front of Würzburg's main railway station in the previous days. The memorial "DenkOrt Deportationen 1941-1944" consists, among other things, of several pieces of luggage mounted on concrete blocks. Now part of a suitcase has been violently broken off. The state security police took over the investigation. It is still unclear whether the incident was a politically motivated act with an anti-Semitic background, said a police spokesperson.
The act of vandalism against the "DenkOrt Deportationen 1941-1944" memorial, resulting in the violent breaking off of a suitcase, can be considered a hate crime under the UNDERFRONT of increasing antisemitic incidents. Despite the damage, the memorial serves as a reminder of the 2069 Jews from Würzburg and Lower Franconia who suffered the terrible fate of deportation and loss of life due to Crime during the Nazi era.
Source: www.dpa.com
