Jewish Communities in Germany Must Guard Cemeteries, Says Appeal

Suggest Rewards for Information Leading to Arrest of Vandals (J. T. A. Mail Service)

The Jewish communities in Germany must guard their cemeteries, says a statement issued here by the Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith. The statement draws attention to the rapidity with which the boys who desecrated the Jewish cemetery at Koepenick were traced, pointing out that a reward had been offered by the Koepenick Jewish Community.

In order to find the vandals and to stop their activities, the statement goes on, substantial rewards must be offered for their arrest. In all future cases of cemetery sacrilege, the Jewish communities to which the cemeteries belong, must offer rewards for the arrest of the criminals. People so depraved as to be capable of committing such low crimes, move in circles where there is a low standard of morality, and an offer of monetary reward will tempt those who know them to give the necessary information. On ethical grounds, the statement says, it is wrong to offer rewards to people to help to bring to punishment such despicable criminals. But a still higher ethics, demanding the punishment of the guilty and the prevention of further acts of sacrilege renders such rewards necessary.

There is another consideration of a practical nature, the statement says. Most of the desecrations of Jewish cemeteries have been carried out in small places, or in cemeteries which are situated far out. In the case of Koepenick, we see that even in a town which is near to a city inhabited by millions, it is not possible to prevent the desecration of cemeteries. The sanctity of the graveyard should be sufficient to protect the dead from being disturbed, but unfortunately the respect for the dead has gone and our communities must guard their cemeteries until the present wave of savagery has subsided, the statement declares.