The Oregon Holocaust Memorial in Portland was found spray-painted with antisemitic hate symbols on Sunday.
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Written in white were two swastikas and "1488," a number popular among neo-Nazis and other white supremacists. The symbols have been removed, and the Portland Police Bureau said on Monday that it is investigating the vandalism, which also included anti-Semitic tagging on street signs and concrete barriers near the park.
To use Nazi symbols to deface a memorial dedicated to the millions who were murdered during the Holocaust recapitulates the hatred that drove the original genocide," Judy Margles, director of the Oregon Jewish Museum, told KOIN 6 News. "It is an act of symbolic violence against the very idea that inspired the memorial."
Portland's Mayor Ted Wheeler said "the damage to the Oregon Holocaust Memorial is heartbreaking, and it's particularly painful that it happened during Jewish American Heritage Month. I denounce hate crimes, antisemitism and white supremacy."
