Last update - 00:00 02/03/2007
Vandals desecrate Jewish cemetery in southern Germany
By The Associated Press
Vandals attacked a Jewish cemetery in southern Germany, damaging some 60 grave markers, roughly half of them beyond repair, regional police said Saturday, noting that no politically motivated markings were found.
Police from the southern state of Bavaria said the attack appeared to have taken place at the end of January, but was not immediately noticed. The vandals appeared to have scaled the walls to knock over and break grave stones dating back to the 1800s, they said.
No sprayings or markings of any kind were left behind, leaving authorities to question the motive behind the attack.
The cemetery, located in the village of in Bad Windsheim, which also includes a memorial, was cared for by a group of volunteers and has not been used for burials since the 1930s, police said.
Local and state officials in Bavaria are offering rewards for anyone able to offer information about the incident.
On Friday, vandals scrawled swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans on the walls of the main synagogue in the city of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, the second time the building has been defaced in less than six months.
Jewish community leaders in the city alerted police after they arrived at the synagogue in the morning and found its entrance door and outer walls covered with swastikas and slogans. Two adjacent buildings were also defaced.
A similar incident occurred at the synagogue in October.
Russia and the Soviet Union had a long history of state-sponsored anti-Semitism. The state no longer perpetuates anti-Semitism following the Soviet collapse, but many Jews and rights advocates have accused Russian authorities of being silent in the face anti-Semitism and other expressions of xenophobia.
In recent years, Russia has experienced a marked rise in hate attacks targeting nonwhite or dark-skinned residents, foreigners and Jews.