Antisemitic graffiti has been discovered on barracks on the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau II Nazi death camp, the Memorial and Museum running the site said on Tuesday, condemning the act as "outrageous."
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The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial preserves the Auschwitz death camp set up on Polish soil by Nazi Germany during World War Two. More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, perished in gas chambers at the camp or from starvation, cold and disease.
The graffiti included statements in English and German, as well as two references to often-used Old Testament sayings frequently used by antisemites, the Memorial said in a statement published on Twitter.
"An offense against the Memorial Site – is above all, an outrageous attack on the symbol of one of the greatest tragedies in human history and an extremely painful blow to the memory of all the victims of the German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau camp," the memorial site tweeted.
Statement concerning the vandalism that took place on October 5 at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau site. pic.twitter.com/bsNepIRCcL
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) October 5, 2021
Police are analyzing and compiling documentation as well as reviewing video footage of the incident, after which the memorial said it would remove the markings.
It added that the security measures at the site were being expanded but that fully enclosing the memorial site would not be possible for some time.
The announcement of the discovery came on the same day that the European Commission unveiled a new strategy to counter what their own research shows is a disturbing rise in antisemitic incidents, particularly online.
Also on Tuesday, President Isaac Herzog arrived in Ukraine for his first official state visit as president where on Wednesday he will participate in an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre alongside the presidents of Germany and Ukraine.
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