‘Death to Jews’ and swastikas drawn on gravestones in southern France

About 20 tombstones, apparently chosen at random, vandalized but not broken or toppled in Gruissan municipal cemetery in Aude region

By Marcy Oster 15 July 2020, 11:43 pm

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Illustrative: French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, center, followed by Strasbourg Chief Rabbi Harold Abraham Weill, second right, walk amid vandalized tombs in the Jewish cemetery of Westhoffen, west of the city of Strasbourg, eastern France, December 4, 2019. (Jean-Francois Badias/AP)

JTA — About 20 gravestones in a cemetery in southern France were vandalized with swastikas and the words “Death to Jews” and “Death to the French.”

The graffiti was discovered in the Gruissan municipal cemetery in the Aude region on Sunday.

The gravestones appear to have been chosen at random and were not broken or toppled, France 3 television reported.

The cemetery has been closed to the public. No suspects have been identified in the attack.

The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism, or BNVCA, in a statement condemned the desecration of the cemetery. The statement noted that the town of Gruissan is “usually rather calm, rather peaceful, and this aggression surprises and scandalizes us.”