Communiqué de presse de la communauté juive de Grèce concernant la profanation du mémorial de la Shoah de Rhodes

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and Greek Jewry in its entirety condemn this act and yet again call upon the authorities to take whatever steps are necessary to protect the city’s Holocaust Memorial which stands as a reminder to everyone of the barbarity with which Nazism drove 1,600 Jewish citizens of Rhodes to mass-produced death in concentration camps.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece also calls for the arrest of those guilty of assaulting the city’s dignity and culture with their anti-Semitic raging.

The society of present-day Greece can neither allow nor tolerate anti-Semitism because such acts are an affront to our civilisation, our humanity, our dignity and our Democracy.

Everyone has both a duty and an obligation to ensure the immediate arrest of the culprits and see they are brought before a court of law, because those who desecrate memorials today are those who will commit crimes against the principles of Democracy and the cultural values of society in the future. It is, above all, the duty of the people of Rhodes to protect the history and integrity of their city.

We trust that the authorities, the Church and local organisations in the city will categorically condemn any and every such barbaric assault against the values of the Hellenic Republic.

Athens, 29th October 2012

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece