Anti-semitic Incidents in Bamberg Show No Abatement; None Arrested

Three more anti-Semitic incidents occurred here this weekend, bringing the total of such actions to eight since June 13, when the Memorial to Jewish Victims of Nazism was desecrated by a swastika, while 23 tombstones in the old Jewish cemetery were overturned and also daubed with the hated Nazi symbol.

The latest manifestations included the dumping of paint over the Memorial; daubing of yellow paint on a sign of the textile business conducted here by Herzy Rosenberg, president of the Bamberg Jewish Community; and the smearing of swastikas and Nazi slogans “Sieg Heil!” was painted; the emblem of the SS was superimposed, the American army was denounced, and an inscription, in German, declared ‘We are the new German resistance movement and call out: Germany Awake. After 20 years, our folk demands a general amnesty. Our Fatherland does not need any Jewish tutelage.”

Although the City of Bamberg has offered a $5,000 reward for the apprehension of the perpetrators of the outrages, no one to date has been arrested for these acts. Police Chief Ritterbeck said today that the new incidents must have been carried out “within a matter of seconds.” Asserting that police, augmented by volunteers, have been on guard around the clock, he said “it is impossible to guard every building.”

Chief prosecutor Franz Ostheimer declared it is his belief that the actions are not the work of a group “but of a single madman.” Rudolf Hanauer, president of the Municipal Council, defended the general population of the city, stating that “nobody should be made responsible for the deeds of some madman and perverted criminal.” Nevertheless, there was disappointment here in the fact that, thus far, nobody in this city of 73,000 has been arrested in connection with the outrages.