Current Event: Vandals Tag 9 Barracks at Auschwitz With Antisemitic Slurs

 

On October sixth (2021)  Mellissa Eddy, Berlin-based correspondent for the New York Times published an article titled “Vandals Tag 9 Barracks at Auschwitz With Antisemitic Slurs”. In this article Eddy expresses a few of the hate crimes that have happened in Europe. Although I would like to focus on one.

 

In the last week, more hate crimes of antisemitic attacks have been added to the list including the antisemitic graffiti on nine wooden barracks in the Auschwitz concentration camp, near the gate of death. The police in Oswiecim, Poland stated the attack happened sometime between 8 am to noon that read antisemitic slurs and swastikas in the barracks that housed men. The slogans that were sprayed with black paint, read multiple phrases denying the holocaust ever exited in both German and English. The officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp have made the decision to not publicize the photos of the vandalization or specify the words used in hopes of spreading more antisemitic hate.  Some officials there called it “an outrageous attack on the symbol of one of the greatest tragedies in human history,”(Eddy, Mellissa, Vandals Tag 9 Barracks at Auschwitz With Antisemitic Slurs, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/world/europe/auschwitz-antisemitism-graffiti.html , 6, Oct, 2021).

 

At Auschwitz, around 1.1million people perished and the majority of them were Jewish.  They perished from the gas chambers as well as cold, hunger and other diseases. Where the recent graffiti was sprayed was an area of the camo where men were in wooden bunk beds stacked three from floor to ceiling.  When the official page of Auschwitz wrote on their Twitter to explain how they feel this is an extremely painful blow to the memory of all the victims’ ‘ who perished at the camp” (Eddy, Mellissa, Vandals Tag 9 Barracks at Auschwitz With Antisemitic Slurs, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/world/europe/auschwitz-antisemitism-graffiti.html , 6, Oct, 2021).

 

Although this act of antisemitism is one of the more painful acts due to Aushwizt’s camp’s role in the holecaust it is also just another statistic. Countries all across Europe have had rising amounts of hate crimes especially towards jews. Many observers have shown their concern to many jews feeling unsafe. In response the EU has earmarked just under $28 million to increase the protection of synagogues and other Jewish sites. Although this is a change we shouldn’t let hate crimes like these go unnoticed. 

Eddy, Melissa. “Vandals Tag 9 Barracks at Auschwitz with Antisemitic Slurs.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Oct. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/world/europe/auschwitz-antisemitism-graffiti.html.