Jewish-owned Melbourne cafe daubed with Holocaust denial graffiti twice in week

JTA — A Jewish-owned café in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, was hit with anti-Semitic graffiti twice in one week.

On Saturday, the back fence of Aliza’s Place Café was painted with “The Holocaust didn’t happen but it should have,” and a large blue swastika. It came two days after the same fence was painted with the words “The Holocaust is a lie.”

The owner, Aliza Shuvaly, told the Australian Jewish News after the first attack that many members of her family were Holocaust survivors.

“I cannot ignore this symbol,” Shuvaly told the newspaper. “All my family were Holocaust survivors – my mother’s parents, my husband’s parents – and for me it’s hurting twice. I started to shake, I didn’t know what to do.”

A Jewish-owned cafe in Melbourne has been targeted by antisemitic vandals twice in one week, after the owner discovered the words “The Holocaust didn’t happen but it should have” painted alongside a swastika on Shabbat. https://t.co/I5DJoJS8fq pic.twitter.com/Zb8i6phVQx

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— Jewish News (@aus_jewishnews) July 6, 2019

She said she would not allow the attack to force her to close the café.

Victoria Police is investigating the incidents.