Desecration of Jewish Cemeteries Reported in Three European Nations

An epidemic of cemetery desecrations and anti-Semitic graffiti has resulted in the arrests of 12 youths in France and West Germany since last week.

In the same period, cemetery vandals were being hunted in Switzerland, Jews in Holland considered measures to protect their burial grounds, and a French teacher was suspended because he allowed his pupils to daub racist graffiti on classroom walls.

The destructive sprees, aimed entirely at Jews, seem to be a perverse reaction to the exceptionally brutal assault May 10 on the ancient Jewish cemetery in Carpentras, in southern France, which was widely condemned by national leaders and a majority of the public.

Two 19-year-old soldiers, described as deserters, and a 19-year-old student were arrested May 17 in Nevers, in central France, after they were caught painting swastikas and racist slogans on the walls of two high schools.

Three young Skinheads were arrested May 16 for defacing a Catholic graveyard in Saint Herblin, near Nantes in western France. They admitted they intended the act to be blamed on Jews.

The shaven-headed youths, age 20 to 22, were described as sons of “well-known families.” Firearms and Nazi propaganda were found in their homes.

They smeared gravestones with slogans against extreme right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, widely regarded as an anti-Semite, and left inscriptions boasting that the Jewish community was responsible, such as “Carpentras Will be Avenged.”

Police arrested an 18-year-old high school student and a 24-year-old unemployed man in Bethune, in northern France, for painting swastikas and racist slogans on the Town Hall.

The pair were sentenced to perform 60 hours of social service and got a lecture on World War II from the state prosecutor, who also mentioned the outrage at Carpentras.

SKINHEADS ARRESTED IN GERMANY

The suspended teacher taught at a vocational school in Givors, near Lyon in southeastern France. His supervisor found him unable to control his class, after students smeared racist graffiti on the walls.

The French minister of justice, Pierre Arpaillange, has reissued strict orders to French prosecutors relating to racist and anti-Semitic offenses.

“All available police forces must be assigned to investigate the perpetrators of racist and anti-Semitic acts, whatever form they take, and find out to which organizations they belong,” the justice minister ordered.

In West Germany, four youths, age 17 to 20 and described as Skinheads, were arrested May 17 for desecrating graves at a concentration camp memorial in Turkheim, in the Unterallgaeu region of Bavaria. They were to be formally charged in youth court.

The West German news media barely mentioned the incident, although it coincided with the wave of cemetery desecrations reported across Europe.

Only two weeks ago, Jewish gravestones were overturned and daubed with swastikas in East Germany, including the stone of the late playwright Berthold Brecht, who in fact was not Jewish.

In Switzerland, more than 2,000 people marched through Geneva on May 17 to show solidarity with the Jewish community, after the cemetery in the small town of Yverdon was spray-painted with swastikas and Stars of David.

Local authorities called it a simple act of vandalism, which may not have been motivated by anti-Semitism, though “inspired” by the desecrations in Carpentras.

The Dutch Ashkenazic community, meanwhile, is mulling over ways to protect Jewish burial grounds, many of which are no longer in use.

The measures being taken were not immediately disclosed, but spokesmen admitted it was difficult to provide permanent surveillance over all of the cemeteries.

Some are surrounded by brick walls or iron fences, but others lie in open country, surrounded only by a ditch.

(Contributing to this report were JTA correspondents David Kantor in Bonn, Ruth E. Gruber in Rome, Tamar Levy in Geneva and Henrietta Boas in Amsterdam.)