The Jewish cemetery of Merlebach, in eastern France, was desecrated Sunday night. Seven graves were daubed with swastikas and inscriptions in German reading Death to the Jews.”
After a short investigation, the local police arrested two 17-year-olds, who admitted they were the perpetrators. The two reportedly said they acted under the influence of the racial violence in Germany. They were to be brought to court Wednesday.
It was the fourth cemetery vandalism reported in France in recent weeks.
Last week, a Jewish cemetery in Lyon was desecrated. Two weeks earlier, the cemetery of Herlishheim, in Alsace, was vandalized, many of its headstones broken. The investigation into that desecration is still under way. In another incident, the synagogue of Saint-Avoid, in the same region, was torched. The culprit, described by the police as an “outcast,” was arrested a few hours after the arson attack.
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