Macron visits cemetery where neo-Nazis scrawled swastikas

MailOnline - news, sport, celebrity, science and health storiesMacron visits cemetery where neo-Nazis scrawled swastikas

JULIAN ROBINSON


Macron visits cemetery where neo-Nazis scrawled swastikas on nearly 100 Jewish graves and vows to crack down on France’s growing anti-Semitism crisis

    • Vandals have targeted 96 graves at a Jewish cemetery in Quatzenheim, France 
    • French President Emmanuel Macron visited the burial site today, vowing to ‘act’
  • Vandalism happened as French cities geared up for mass rallies after a series of anti-Semitic acts that have shocked the nation

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to crack down on hate crimes after neo-Nazis scrawled swastikas on nearly 100 graves at a Jewish Cemetery.

Macron went immediately to the cemetery in Quatzenheim in the Alsace region near Germany, a few hours ahead of nationwide rallies to denounce a surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes.

‘We shall act, we shall pass laws, we shall punish,’ Macron told Jewish leaders while inspecting the 96 tombstones spray-painted with blue and yellow swastikas.

‘Those who did this are not worthy of the Republic,’ he said, later placing a white rose on a tombstone commemorating Jews deported to Germany during World War II.

Another grave bore the words ‘Elsassisches Schwarzen Wolfe’ (‘Black Alsatian Wolves), a separatist group with links to neo-Nazis in the 1970s.

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to crack down on hate crimes after neo-Nazis scrawled swastikas on nearly 100 graves at a Jewish Cemetery

Macron went immediately to the cemetery in Quatzenheim in the Alsace region near Germany, a few hours ahead of nationwide rallies to denounce a surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes

Macron placed a white rose on a tombstone commemorating Jews deported to Germany during World War II

It was the second case of extensive cemetery desecration in the region since December, when nearly 40 graves as well as a monument to Holocaust victims were vandalised in Herrlisheim, about a half-hour drive from Quatzenheim.

Macron was to also visit the Paris Holocaust memorial on Tuesday ahead of the anti-racism marches, called after a spate of anti-Jewish vandalism discovered in and around Paris following recent ‘yellow vest’ protests.

Many French Jews are on edge after the government announced a 74 per cent jump in anti-Jewish offences in 2018 after two years of declines.

Germany has also seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitic crimes, with more than 1,600 cases recorded last year.

Israel’s Immigration Minister Yoav Gallant said the increase should prompt French Jews to move to Israel.

‘I firmly condemn the anti-Semitism in France and call on the Jews: Come home, immigrate to Israel,’ he said on Twitter.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on slammed the ‘shocking’ incident in a video released today.

‘Today something shocking happened in France. Eighty Jewish graves were desecrated with Nazi symbols by wild anti-Semites,’ Netanyahu said.

‘I call on the leaders of France and Europe to take a strong stand against anti-Semitism. It is a plague that endangers everyone, not just us,’ he said.

Swastikas have been scrawled on graves at a Jewish cemetery in France just hours before campaigners across the country were due to march against anti-Semitism

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