The man who damaged a monument dedicated to the liberation of Auschwitz was not spurred on by anti-Semitism, but apparently was a drug addict seeking revenge against his employer.
The damage was carried out on Jan. 31–the same day the monument was unveiled in a memorial ceremony — by a 38-year-old Amsterdam heroin addict who worked as a freelance assistant at the glass manufacturing firm which produced the memorial.
The incident immediately caught the attention of the Dutch media under the assumption that it was motivated by anti-Semitism.
But the vandal turned himself in to police last Thursday night, saying he had been motivated to damage the piece of art after noticing that an error had been made in the monument’s construction.
The man claimed he acted on orders from the factory’s manager. However, the manager denied the charge and said he believed the vandalism was an act of revenge for not receiving money and that no racist or anti-Semitic motives were involved.
The manager said the man has been a heroin addict for a long time and had asked him for money to buy drugs.
In his confession to police, the vandal said he had climbed over the fence of the Wertheim public gardens, where the monument stood, and attacked the memorial with a pickax. The memorial’s six large horizontal glass plates were splintered.
The manager of the glass manufacturing firm said the attempt to implicate him was absurd. He said that if there had been any fault in the monument — and he denied there was any — it could have been easily removed at practically no cost.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
