Vandals damage Holocaust memorial in Czech town

Latal said it was shameful that the Holocaust memorial was damaged on the day when Czechs commemorate the anniversary of the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak state.

He added that the memorial was damaged in a similar way in the past. In January someone sprayed it with green.

The Jewish community plan to repair the memorial as soon as possible. It may have to replace the whole plaque if it cannot be cleansed.

North Bohemian police spokesman Ladislav Cvik said the police are searching for the perpetrators. they have not found out yet that the act was racially motivated, he added.

There are no abusive inscriptions on the memorial.

The memorial was raised at the place of a former synagogue in Teplice, which used to be the largest synagogue in the Czech Lands.

Local Nazis burnt it down on March 15, 1939 when German troops occupied Bohemia and Moravia.

Some 5000 Jews, that is 10 percent of the town inhabitants, lived in Teplice before World War Two. Most of them died in concentration camps.

Autor: ČTK
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