(JTA) — A Nazi memorabilia collector was sentenced to seven years in prison for spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti on headstones at a Jewish cemetery.
Polish national Mariusz Wdziekonski, 25, was given the maximum sentence in a Chicago court for desecrating 67 graves with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery in Chicago in January 2008. He was convicted earlier this month.
"You wanted to inflict your hatred. You wanted to inflict your pain. You brought shame to your family," Cook County Circuit Judge Larry Axelrood said Dec. 17 before handing down the sentence.
Wdziekonski, who entered the United States in 2004 and has admitted to being a collector of Nazi memorabilia, has been imprisoned for three years and could be eligible for early release in a few months. He also could be deported, according to reports.
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