According to local authorities, swastikas were sprayed on a number of graves that are located in a Jewish cemetery in Minsk Mazowiecki (Novominsk) Poland. The perpetrators are unknown. Since the cemetery is closed for most of the day, it is considered a break-in. The graves also appear to have Nazi slogans such as “Juden raus” painted on them.
The desecrated graves were discovered by local residents, who, in turn, notified members of the local Jewish community. After being notified by the Jewish community, the police opened up an investigation.
Novominsk, which had its named changed to Minsk Mazowiecki in 1916, is located in central Poland, near Warsaw. The city has a population of approximately 40,000 people.
Before World War Two, thousands of Polish Jews lived in the surrounding area. But when Hitler invaded Poland, the Jewish community of Minsk Mazowiecki (Novominsk) was rounded up, and forced to live in the Nazi-created Minsk Ghetto.
In one of the first episodes of the Holocaust, the Minsk Jews, who had not been shot to death by the SS in the streets of Minsk Mazowiecki, were sent to the gas chambers of Treblinka.
In addition, a Jewish cemetery located in Balti (Belts), Moldova, formerly Bessarabia, USSR, was desecrated with graffiti and vandalized. The enormous cemetery has 25,000 Jewish graves. Six gravestones were smashed and toppled. Despite an investigation by the Balti police, the vandals have not been identified
The cemetery caretaker, Nina Korlotyan, told Channel BTV that she believes that a group of young people may have gone into the cemetery at night. Korlotyan became suspicious when she discovered empty liquor bottles around cemetery benches
Balti (Belts) which is the third largest city in Moldova, originally had a large Jewish population. Before the start of World War Two, 20,000 Jews lived in Balti, But 15,000 Balti Jews perished in the Holocaust. They either died in death camps, were shot to death by Romanian soldiers, who were allies of Nazi Germany, or died of starvation.
The desecration of the Polish and Moldovan cemeteries are part of a wave of cemetery desecrations that have recently occurred in Europe.
