More than forty ancient graves at a Jewish cemetery have been destroyed in a city in eastern Germany, local police said on Thursday.
According to the Dessau-Rosslau police, more than forty Jewish graves have been destroyed in Cothen, a town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, including tombstones that have been toppled and damaged.
The police suspect that the vandalism was committed between Friday and Tuesday in the Jewish part of the cemetery. Authorities estimate that the damage to these ancient graves amounted to more than 20,000 euros.
Police are looking for “people who can provide information about possible suspects.”
Cothen, the former capital of the principality of Anhalt-Köthen, is best known for hosting the composer Johann Sebastian Bach in the 18th century.
In recent years, Germany has seen a resurgence of anti-Semitic acts.
In 2019, Stephan Balliet, linked to the far right and a supporter of conspiracy theories, tried to enter the synagogue in Halle, located in the same state of Saxony-Anhalt, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
Halle was unable to enter the synagogue, where many worshipers were present that day, but killed two people nearby before being detained by security forces.
After this attack and another of a racist nature in Hanau, near Frankfurt, in 2020, which left nine dead, Germany placed far-right terrorism as a top threat.
On Tuesday, the German government finally banned the activities of the group ‘Hammerskins Germany’, which spreads a ‘racial theory based on Nazi ideology’, in a large-scale operation across the country.
Source: DN
