Berlin’s Kindertransport memorial has been vandalised with graffiti sprayed over the bronze statues of children and images of what appeared to represent the Al-Aqsa mosque daubed elsewhere on the monument.
The famous ‘Trains to Life – Trains to Death’ bronze sculpture by Frank Meisler was created to commemorate the 10,000 Kindertransport Holocaust survivors, and the millions of other children who were transported by train and killed by the Nazis.
Following a pro-Palestinian protest in the German city on New Years Eve photographs of the graffiti attack were shared on social media, prompting outrage.
Anti-Israel demonstrations had officially been banned by the German authorities over the Christmas and New Year period, but anti-Israel protesters had illegally rallied on New Year’s Eve, hundreds were arrested in scenes of disorder.
The Berlin memorial graffiti incident is widely believed to have been carried out by activists involved with the pro-Palestine demo.
In a statement the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) said: “As the national organisation representing and caring for Holocaust survivors and refugees, the AJR is disgusted that this poignant and cherished monument, which commemorates the desperate yet life-saving journeys of the youngest victims of Nazi oppression, has been desecrated.
“This antisemitic act comes at a time of already heightened anxiety in Jewish communities following the terror attacks in Israel last October and will be especially sickening to the Kinder and their families.”
Revital Yakhin Krakowski, deputy director general of the World March for Life, told Israel’s Channel 12. “The monument was not vandalised by accident, the damage to it was intended to weaken the Jewish spirit by damaging the most important symbols to us.
“There is a clear connection between the denial of the Holocaust and the denial of the acts of terrorism on October 7.”