Paris police officials were asked today to provide special police protection for the memorial of the unknown Jewish martyr after vandals defaced the walls of the memorial with huge smears of India ink.
The defacement was the latest in a series of anti-Semitic incidents believed to be the work of young hooligans belonging to extremist right-wing groups in Paris. French police had started a thorough investigation of the memorial defacement before M. Papon, the Prefect of Police, received from Sen. Andre Mutter, president of the Memorial Committee, the appeal for special protection.
In earlier incidents, stones were thrown through windows of synagogues and Jewish stores have been marked with swastikas.
A group of 300 persons gathered at the memorial at the invitation of the Movement Against Racism and Anti-Semitism and for Peace. They laid wreaths on the memorial and called for stronger legislation to deal with anti-Semitism. The National Association of Deportee and Persecutee Organizations also sent representatives to the gathering.
Both the Representative Council of Jews of France and the International League Against Anti-Semitism have been asked by their members to counteract the latest anti-Semitic incidents. Jewish Socialist Bund members here have approached the French Socialist party on the problem.
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