Vandals destroy Jewish monument in Poland

Sep 1, 2011, 10:13 GMT

Warsaw - Vandals destroyed a monument in Poland that commemorated victims of the Jedwabne pogrom against Jews by covering it with swastikas and racist slogans, police said Thursday.

The vandalism was the latest incident in a series of attacks in eastern Poland against minorities, which previously targeted the Muslim and Lithuanian communities.

Unknown suspects covered the Jedwabne monument in green paint and swastikas, and wrote on a nearby fence, 'I am not sorry for Jedwabne,' and 'They were highly flammable.'

Jedwabne was the scene of one of worst atrocities against Jews during the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany during World War Two. Encouraged by the German soldiers, Poles murdered at least 340 Jews in the town in 1941 by locking them inside a barn and burning them alive.

A monument was erected at the site ten years ago, on the 60th anniversary of the pogrom. Then-president Aleksander Kwasniewski apologised on behalf of Poland for the crime.

Local police are investigating similar incidents that have recently targeted Lithuanians and Muslims to see whether the attacks were connected.

Unknown suspects attacked an Islamic Cultural Centre in nearby Bialystock on August 20, damaging the entrance and setting fire to the bathroom. That incident was followed by an attack on a Polish-Pakistani couple in the same town whose front door was set on fire during the night.

In another incident, vandals painted over Lithuanian names on 28 signs with the red and white colors of the Polish flag on August 21 or 22 in the same region of eastern Poland, police said.

The village of Punsk, near the Lithuanian border, has a large Lithuanian population and includes signs in both Polish and Lithuanian.

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