Anti-Semitic Graffiti Painted on Wall of Former Krakow Ghetto

Polish police are looking for vandals that painted a swastika and other graffiti on the wall of the former ghetto in Krakow.

The graffiti, drawn with a tar-like substance, was painted over on Tuesday, the same day it was discovered.

A fragment of the ghetto wall is located at Limanowskiego Street in Krakow. On Tuesday morning, the inscription “whores Jews, get the f**k out of Poland” alongside a swastika. Police investigated in the area but did not find any clues leading to the vandal.

The graffiti was immediately removed by municipal services.

“While I was extremely upset to see the hateful graffiti on the ghetto wall, especially on Rosh Hashana, the quick reaction by the city and the police reminded me why Krakow is such a good place to be a Jew,” said Jonathan Ornstein, director of the Jewish Community Center of Krakow.

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On Sunday, graffiti was discovered on the wall of the Jewish cemetery in Tarnow, reading “Confederation against Jews #447”.

“Law 447,” or the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today, or JUST act, is legislation that was approved by the U.S. Congress in 2018. The legislation insures that people who survived World War II — or their heirs — receive compensation for their losses, if that has not already happened. The Confederation is a right-wing political group that opposes the restitution of Jewish property.

Adam Bartosz of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments of Jewish Culture in Tarnow said he believes that this act of vandalism is associated with the current election campaign for the Polish national parliament. He announced a lawsuit against the Confederation Party. The group’s Tarnow activists claim that they have nothing to do with the inscription.