Frankfurt – “Criminal Jews’: A short while
before the anniversary of the Crystal
Night (Kristallnacht in German), Antisemites sprayed graffiti on a memorial
monument of a synagogue in Frankfurt. Many citizens reacted immediately.
200 years ago, every third citizen in the
Rödelheim city section of Frankfurt was Jewish, for which reason a new
synagogue had been built on site. Next week, the citizens wish to get together
at the site where the building was destroyed in November 1938, and this in
order to remember and observe the date, at which Jewish life there ended, the
Crystal Night, as well as the Jews of Rödelheim who were murdered in the
following years. Said memorial event will be held now under the cloud of
present-day hatred for Jews.
Antisemites sprayed graffiti onto the
gates of Brentano Park, where, just a
year ago, a new memorial monument was inaugurated. “Jews who lived among
us were led to the concentration camps and were murdered there, and we let this
happen”.
The perpetrators of this act of vandalism
also caused damage to the main memorial statue put up last year: a stone in form
of a Torah book, with a Menorah on it. They erased the symbol that was supposed
to stand for hope. “We are shocked that this devil raises its ugly head
again”, said Armin Kroneisen from the Historical
Association of Rödelheim, after the graffiti had been uncovered.
