South African Jewry is outraged over the desecration of a community synagogue last week by a squad of men dressed like Hitler’s storm troopers.
The incident took place last Wednesday, the eve of Israel’s Independence Day and the 99th anniversary of Hitler’s birthday.
According to police accounts, six white men in “Nazi-type uniforms” marched up the steps of the Great Synagogue in Essenwood Road, Durban and dumped a pig’s head at the door. The forehead was marked with a swastika and a Star of David was stamped on each ear.
Eyewitnesses described the men as wearing white shirts, black ties, black uniforms and swastika-like arm bands. They wore boots, marched in step and executed the Nazi salute.
A similar incident occurred at about the same time at the Jewish Club in Durban.
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has expressed outrage over the incident, and the president, Michael Katz, said “the board would pursue the matter in collaboration with the authorities.” Durban police are hunting for six white men who will be charged with criminal injury.
The South African Jewish community is furious and horrified as the acts, reminiscent of anti-Jewish activities during the ’30s and ’40s, follows several other neo-Nazi incidents in South Africa within the last two weeks.
President P.W. Botha described the perpetrators as “the dregs of society” in a statement last Friday. “I think the people are sick,” he said.
Botha stated in Cape Town two days later that neo-Nazism will not be tolerated in South Africa. He said he had fought against National Socialism all of his life, in South Africa and in World War II.
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