Germany's Holocaust memorial defaced by vandals

[Behind the Aegis]

BERLIN - A memorial in Germany to the six million European Jews murdered by the Nazis has been partly defaced with yellow Stars of David, police said on Friday.

A Berlin police spokesman said that a star had been painted by unknown vandals onto each of six of the 2,711 concrete slabs of varying height that make up the memorial.

Under the Nazis, Jews had to wear yellow stars of David to distinguish themselves from Aryan Germans.

The spokesman said that the stars, which have been removed since they were discovered on Thursday, may have been linked to a number of others found sprayed or painted onto buildings and monuments in central Berlin during the past four weeks.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/647308.html

[Kagemusha]

1. ...Wait a sec.

Wouldn't the idea be to paint it with swastikas?...

What gives?

[Codeine]

2. Underscores that they are different

and alien, just like the original stars did. It's like making them do it all over again, even in death.

[smirkymonkey]

3. That's what I was thinking - I guess that would rule out neo-nazis

as the culprits. (maybe, maybe not - but it seems like swastikas would be their calling card).

[Ian David]

4. Perhaps painting a Swastika has a higher legal penalty in Germany...

and while the perps are willing to risk jail time, maybe not that much jail time.

Or perhaps they're hoping someone will think Jews are making the graffiti?

[Codeine]

5. Actually, it means it's almost certainly neoNazis

trying to remind Jews of their "place".

[Igel]

6. It's one of the traditional symbols, from Morocco to Afghanistan,

that a person is Jew; it was picked up by Nazi Germany.

A Jew was forced to wear it lest a non-Jew accidentally treat him like a full-fledged person.

On edit: Actually, the widespread and persistent nature of this symbol means either neo-Nazi, Islamist, or somebody familiar with either of the traditions. In Germany, that would be most everybody.