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German Police Investigating Vandalism of Two Holocaust Memorials in Berlin
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by Algemeiner Staff
A detail of the burned out “book box” at Berlin’s Grunewald station. Photo: Reuters/Fabian Somme
Two memorials in Berlin to victims of the Nazi Holocaust have been vandalized with antisemitic and homophobic messages, German police said on Tuesday.
One target was the memorial to the more than 10,000 Jews deported from Gleis 17 (“Platform 17”) at Berlin’s Grunewald station to Nazi concentration camps, while the other commemorated LGBT victims of the Nazis. Both attacks were first reported on Saturday.
Two witnesses at Grunewald station reported seeing a man setting fire to a “book box” alongside the memorial that contains literature about the Holocaust accessible to any member of the public. The contents of the box, which was first dedicated in 2012, were almost completely destroyed in the arson attack, a police spokesperson said.
An antisemitic note was discovered nearby. According to the Berlin daily Die Tageszeitung, police initially overlooked the note and had to be alerted to its existence by Konrad Kutt, the individual who manages the book box.
The police at first “didn’t actually take the letter with them,” Kutt said. “They were clearly embarrassed when I asked about it. After that, a patrol came by and picked up the original document from me.”
The arson attack was roundly condemned by the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference of Germany, saying that it “shows the continuation of an increasing, alarming trend.”
“This time books from the memorial documenting the horror of Nazi terror were damaged,” the rabbis’ statement noted. “But the arsonists will not be able to deny or downplay the Holocaust, because the historical facts speak a clear, deeply sad language about the abysmal deeds people were willing to commit and hopefully never will again.”
The memorial to LGBT victims was reportedly vandalized in the early hours of Saturday. An attempted arson attack failed, but the assailant left a note containing a Biblical quote and urging the death penalty for homosexuality.
Responding to the vandalism, the Lesbian and Gay Federation of Germany (LSVD) said that it was “shocked by the incitement of hate” at the memorial, which was opened in Berlin’s Tiergarten in 2008 as a tribute to the thousands of gay men and lesbians deported by the Nazis to concentration camps.
