Grave of Helmut and Loki Schmidt smeared
Today, former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who died in 2015, would have been 105 years old. It is unclear whether this is the reason why unknown people are graffitiing his gravestone. The swastika graffiti was discovered on Friday.
Unknown persons have daubed swastikas on the grave of former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and his wife Loki at a cemetery in Hamburg. According to the police, the graffiti was discovered on Friday evening at around 8.30 pm and "immediately removed".
According to the report, two swastikas had been sprayed onto the gravestone in red paint. It is not yet clear who was behind it. The criminal investigation department is currently investigating the background to the crime and the identity of the perpetrator or perpetrators. State security is also investigating.
"What a despicable and history-forgetting act", wrote Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser on X. "Helmut and Loki Schmidt always stood up against contempt for humanity, racism and anti-Semitism - in awareness of our history."
In a statement, the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation, the Helmut and Loki Schmidt Foundation and the Loki Schmidt Foundation also condemned the desecration of the grave in the strongest possible terms. "Smearing the gravestone of Loki and Helmut Schmidt with swastikas is a criminal offense in several respects. Above all, however, this mindless vandalism is a massive attempt to damage the memory of the two, who found their final resting place in the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg," it said.
Both had always "stood up for freedom, democracy and international understanding. They firmly rejected inhuman tyranny and anti-Semitism," the foundations' statement continued.
Schmidt was Chancellor of the SPD from 1974 to 1982 and would have been 105 years old on Saturday. He died on November 10, 2015, and his wife Loki, who was born in 1919, died in 2010. Their grave is located in the cemetery in the Ohlsdorf district.
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The act of vandalizing Helmut and Loki Schmidt's grave with swastikas in Hamburg is a stark reminder of the persistence of criminality and hatred, even in the face of progress and enlightened leadership like that of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. The desecration of Helmut Schmidt's resting place in his hometown of Hamburg is a tragic and shameful episode that highlights the importance of continuing to combat and educate against such reprehensible acts.
Source: www.ntv.de
