Macron angered by desecration of Jewish graves
Last week, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in France against anti-Semitic incidents. Nevertheless, the country has seen a significant increase in anti-Semitic crimes since the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Now even Jewish graves are being desecrated.
The desecration of ten Jewish graves at a German military cemetery in France has caused consternation. The German War Graves Commission, which looks after the graves of German war dead, condemned the act in the strongest possible terms. It is the first time that something like this has happened at a German military cemetery, said Alexandre de Bordelius from the War Graves Commission. Graves in Jewish cemeteries in Alsace had been desecrated several times in 2018 and 2019.
On Wednesday, ten desecrated Jewish graves were discovered at the German military cemetery in Moulin-sous-Touvent in northern France. Some of the gravestones of German soldiers from the First World War had been broken, knocked over or moved several meters away from the graves. "The Jewish graves were not in a separate area, but scattered around the cemetery," explained de Bordelius. A total of 1903 German soldiers from the First World War are buried there.
Macron: anti-Semitism is poison for society
French President Emmanuel Macron was "deeply shocked". "Such acts of hatred cannot be justified", he said on Wednesday evening on the fringes of his state visit to Switzerland. He reiterated his call to "fight against all forms of anti-Semitism". This was a "poison that endangers our unity", he added.
The mayor of the town, Anne Brocvielle, assumes that the perpetrators were well prepared. "They were obviously full of rage," she told the BFM radio station. The public prosecutor's office had already opened an investigation the day before.
Preservation of Jewish sites threatened by Israel-Palestine conflict
According to the Volksbund, the cemetery was established by the French authorities in 1920 to accommodate German war dead from scattered field graves. Moulin-sous-Touvent and the surrounding villages were among the areas that were particularly heavily fought over in the first and last years of the war. Most of those buried there died during the major battles and numerous engagements of 1918.
At the end of the 1960s, young volunteers, including some from Bremen, were involved in designing the cemetery. All of the dead are buried in individual graves, with only six of them remaining nameless. After 1971, the wooden crosses were replaced by metal crosses. The ten Jewish soldiers were each given a natural stone stele with the words "Here rests buried..." in Hebrew.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, more than 1500 anti-Semitic crimes have been registered in France since the start of the war between Israel and the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas at the beginning of October. This is more than three times as many as in the entire previous year. Around half of these are smearings of slogans or swastikas, while two percent relate to acts of violence and injuries. In total, around 1800 anti-Semitic acts have been recorded in France since the beginning of the year.
Following the desecration of Jewish graves, Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned the increase in anti-Semitic crimes in France, stating that anti-Semitism is a poison for society. (Macron, anti-Semitism)
In response to the surge in anti-Semitic incidents, including the desecration of Jewish graves, tens of thousands of people protested against anti-Semitism in France. (anti-Semitism, France)
Source: www.ntv.de
