Monument to the Holocaust and synagogue desecrated in Larissa, Greece
A Holocaust monument has been vandalised and the wall of a synagogue desecrated in the Greek city of Larissa.
The latest in a string of such attacks in central Greece, the vandalism took place on 3rd December.
It was denounced by Greece’s Foreign Ministry which declared: “This abhorrent act offends the memory of the victims of the Holocaust” and was not in line with the values of Greek society. “Such actions remind us of the need to be vigilant in defending our moral values against racism, hatred and bigotry,” continued the statement.
The Jewish Community of Larissa said that it believed that one perpetrator was responsible for both incidents.
The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KISE) condemned the vandalism, saying it “exudes religious fanaticism and intolerance.”
Recent antisemitic incidents in Greece have included the desecration of a monument in Trikala in memory of Jews deported to Auschwitz as well as the desecration of Trikala’s Jewish cemetery. In 2019, a Jewish school in Athens was spray-painted with antisemitic slurs, while in January 2020 a monument commemorating the Jews of Thessaloniki was desecrated.
In 2019, shortly after taking office, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, of the New Democracy party said Greece would adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism in a bid to reduce antisemitism in the country.
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