Anne Frank Memorial in Boise, Idaho vandalised again with swastikas nearly one year to the day after similar incident
The Anne Frank Memorial in Boise, Idaho has been vandalised again nearly one year to the day after it was last defaced.
On 1st December 2020, the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise was defaced with swastikas and antisemitic messages, an incident in which Dan Prinzing, Executive Director of the Wassmuth Centre, said was “a sad day” before questioning why “hate has become so emboldened.”
The Memorial, dedicated in 2002, is an adjunct to Boise’s Wassmuth Centre for Human Rights, which shared photos on Facebook showing the swastikas and racist messages.
On Saturday, the memorial was once again defaced with swastikas and antisemitic messages, which included “f**k Jews” and “I [heart] Nazis”.
Chief Ryan Lee of the Boise Police Department said: “We recognize the significance of this being the last Saturday of Hanukkah and we are reaching out to Jewish leaders in our community to let them know we will not stand for such hateful and abhorrent behavior in our city. The graffiti is in the process of being cleaned and covered up.”
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean condemned the latest incident on Twitter, saying: “The antisemitic messages contained in the graffiti found along the Greenbelt put a literal and figurative stain on our community. This will not be tolerated.
“Hate speech is reprehensible. It is not who [we] are as a city and is not part of our shared values. I invite all good people of Boise to stand with me, as I stand with our Jewish neighbors, to rebuke this hate.”
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Image credit: Twitter via The Algemeiner
