Holocaust Memorial Defaced on Greek Island
A Holocaust memorial in Rhodes was defaced by unknown vandals.
The Holocaust Memorial to the Jews of Rhodes was spray painted with swastikas on all six sides of the memorial. The initials AME also were spray painted on the monument, and may refer to an unknown organization, according to the Greek Helsinki Monitor.
The attack occurred overnight on Saturday. The Security Police of Rhodes began an investigation into the incident on Saturday morning.
It is not the first time that the monument has been vandalized.
The monument was dedicated in 2002, in the Jewish Martyrs Square in what was the old Jewish Quarter of Rhodes. On each side of the monument the words “Do not ever forget the eternal memory of the 1604 Jews of Rhodes and Kos who perished in Nazi death camps” are etched, each side in a different language.
Some 1,600 Jews were rounded up by the Nazis in July 1944. Today only a handful of Jews remain.
The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party has gained support in Greece since the country fell into a harsh economic recession amid the European crisis.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
