Neo-Nazis coordinate wave of antisemitic attacks on anniversary of atrocity

A neo-Nazi group “coordinated a wave of antisemitic attacks” across Scandinavia this weekend on the 81st anniversary of ​Kristallnacht, ”The Night of Broken Glass”.

The attacks included headstones being overturned and defaced with green paint, a Nazi-era Jewish star put on a mailbox and “Jew” painted across a Jewish memorial.

They all took place on Saturday, which was the anniversary of Kristallnacht in which 81 years ago the Nazi Party sanctioned widespread violence against the Jewish community, which saw hundreds of Jewish homes and businesses razed.

Chairman of the Jewish Society in Denmark, Henri Goldstein, said the attacks were likely coordinated by far-right group Nordfront, who he described as "exactly like the Nazis but without the Swastika”.

Speaking to The Independent, he said: “The group published pictures of the vandalism. We don’t know how real the pictures are but we think they coordinated the attacks.

“They are much stronger in Sweden than Denmark but the attacks happened across Scandinavia, including Norway.

“The group also published an article denying the Holocaust, laughing about and asking ‘why are the Jews so scared?’”

According to the Jewish Society in Denmark, the attacks are merely the “tip of the Iceberg” and they warn that antisemitic attacks are on the rise.

In 2017, the organisation reported 30 cases of antisemitism and the figure rose to 45 in 2018.

The attacks in Denmark include a Jewish couple from Silkeborg who found the star, used by Nazi Germany to identify Jewish people, on their mailbox.

The star was also found in several places around the city of Aarhus.

In Vallensbæk Strand on the Copenhagen West Bank, a star of David was painted on the wall of a Jewish family’s house.

Meanwhile, in Randers, 84 Jewish headstones were vandalised with several turned over and green paint defacing them.

In East Jutland a building with a Jewish star on its side was defaced with black paint and in Aalborg, ‘Jew’ was written on a Jewish memorial.

Speaking on Sunday evening, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said: “Antisemitism and racism have no place in our society. And this weekend’s attack on a Jewish burial ground in Randers is both an attack on Danish Jews and all of us.

“It pains me to think of what it must be like to see his loved ones’ last resting place exposed to such disgusting vandalism.

“Just as it is extremely uncomfortable that a star of David is put on the mailbox of a Danish-Jewish family in Silkeborg.

“We must condemn it, and the authorities must do what they can to solve these crimes.”

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder said on Sunday: “It is no longer possible for anybody, Jew or non-Jew alike, to be shocked by the callous reminders unleashed against our communities in Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe this past Shabbat that antisemitism is alive and well, and right at our doorsteps.

“The writing has been on the wall for years, and today, 81 years nearly to the date of Kristallnacht, it continues to blaze strongly.

“The time has come for deliberate and targeted action. Europe must wake up and protect its Jewish citizens.”

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