|
|
NEWS
Jewish Cemetery and Holocaust Memorial Vandalized in
Odessa
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
Over 200 graves at the Jewish Cemetery and the memorial
monument for Holocaust victims were vandalized last week in
Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea in Southern Ukraine.
Valeslav Kapulkin, spokesman for the local Jewish community,
said unidentified vandals spray-painted swastikas and the
words, "Congratulations on the Holocaust," and even struck
gravestones with a blunt object. He said the attacks were
clearly motivated by antisemitism, and the extent of the
incident indicates it was planned rather than spontaneous,
since the monument and the cemetery are located at opposite
ends of the city.
Police Spokesman Dimitri Fuchedzhi said an investigation has
been opened and every effort would be made to find those
responsible for the act and hold them trial. "There are
people from 130 different nationalities living in our city
and nobody bothers anyone else," he said. "Everything will be
done to insure this act is not repeated."
Last year a neo-Nazi who desecrated Jewish graves in the city
received a relatively light sentence — a fine rather
than time in prison.
The monument for Holocaust victims was built in Odessa last
year by the local community in memory of the 22,000 elderly
people, women and children who were burned in army warehouses
during World War II. Until the beginning of the 90s, Odessa
had the largest Jewish community in the former Soviet Union
and was the only large metropolitan area with a Jewish
mayor.
The Jews of Rivne in Northwest Ukraine expressed hopes that
with the election of the new mayor in place of his
predecessor, who was a declared antisemite and a member of
the right-wing nationalist party, the acts of vandalism at
the mass grave in Sosonky outside the city would end. During
World War II in Sosonky 17,500 Jews were killed in a pine
forest over the course of two days in November 1941 and
buried in a mass grave.
|
