107 gravestones have been painted with swastikas at a jewish cemetery in northeastern France.
France set up a national agency to lead the fight against hate crime.
It happens after 107 gravestones have been painted with swastikas at a jewish cemetery in northeastern France.
It informs the French minister of the interior, Christophe Castaner, by a visit to the cemetery on Wednesday.
The by graffiti gravestones in Westhoffen near Strasbourg in the Alsace region, is the latest of several racist attacks that have shaken France.
The new office will fall under the French gendarmerie which is a military organized police force.
The task will be to investigate anti-semitic, anti-muslim and anti-christian attacks, says interior minister.
– the Republic itself has been vanhelliget. Hatred has hit, and there is hatred in our own territory, he says.
Castaner promise that “the perpetrators of these vile acts will be sentenced”.
more Than 20 gravestones have been painted over with the large, black swastika.
chief rabbi of Strasbourg, Harold Abraham Weill, says that the swastika will never be able to annihilate the jews.
– You can never erase our memories about our identity, not with your paint, or whatever you use.
– We are here, and we will be here for a long time, he says.
the Cemetery in Westhoffen are known to have several prominent names buried.
Both the philosopher Karl Marx, who is considered as the founder of communism, and France’s former socialist prime minister Léon Blum, are buried in the cemetery.
the Alsace region has been hit by several cases of racist vandalism in the past year.
In February was 96 gravestones in the French municipality of Quatzenheim skændt, which created uproar in France.
the Number of anti-semitic crimes increased by 74 percent from 2017 to 2018. It has created alarming conditions in the country, which has both the largest muslim and jewish population in Europe.
the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, sent on Tuesday supportive messages on Twitter.
– Jews are and creates the France. Those who attack them, although their graves do not deserve the idea, we have about France, writes Macron.
– Anti-semitism is a crime, and we will fight it in Westhoffen and everywhere, until our fallen can rest in peace, writes the president.
It is not only France that is struggling with anti-semitism in Europe.
In Randers was 84 headstones at the jewish cemetery in Randers Østre Cemetery doused with green paint in november. In addition, some of the gravestones knocked over.
the Vandalism took place exactly 81 years after the kristallnacht in nazi Germany where jewish stores, schools, homes and synagogues were razed.
/ritzau/AFP
