A stone monument honoring Jewish victims of the Dachau concentration camp was smeared with a Nazi swastika and the words “Heil Hitler” painted on it, police reported today. An official investigation was launched. The monument is located overlooking the graves of many Jews at Leittenberg Cemetery just outside the camp. It has a Jewish Star of David chiselled on its face.
The president of the Bavarian State Criminal Police, Dr. Hans Schneider, took charge of the probe. A Protestant Atonement church was dedicated at the same site on Sunday. A Jewish memorial center was to be dedicated next Sunday as part of the 22nd anniversary of the liberation of Dachau by allied forces on April 29, 1945, Investigators said the desecration of the monument was timed to coincide with the anniversary events to show the contempt of some Germans for the memory of the murdered Jews.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.