Anti-Semitism and Vandalism is on the Rise in Minsk, Belarus

Minsk, Belarus - The Israeli Embassy has made a statement in the connection with two anti-Semitic acts of vandalism committed in Minsk and has conveyed all the information about those acts to the Foreign Ministry of Belarus. The Israeli Embassy hopes that Belarusian mass media would launch a wide campaign of protest against such occasions which are not tolerable in a civilized democratic society.

At the end of the last week swastikas and slogans "Beat the Jews!" were painted on the façade of Israeli Information and Cultural Center.

A swastika was painted on the obelisk in the memorial complex to the Jews who were the Second World War victims, "Yama". Leaflets calling upon a struggle against Judaism and Freemasonry, enemies and traitors of the motherland, were scattered near the obelisk. Leaflets were signed by a "Front of Arian Resistance of Belaya Rus".

"We consider this act of vandalism a manifestation of anti-Semitism and a provocation of ethic discord. We are hoping that state authorities would give an appropriate opinion to those actions, and hope that the Belarusian authorities would take most effective measures for detection, detention and punishment of culprits", - the Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations stated.

On the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism, marked on November 9, 2006 a remembrance rally was held in Minsk. Several dozens of Belarusians gathered at 7 p.m. at Jubileynaya Square near the metro station "Frunzenskaya" and marched to the memorial "Yama", the place of the last mass shooting of Minsk ghetto Jews. They laid flowers, placed candles to the monument and observed one minute's silence in remembrance of the victims.

Just to remind you, a pogrom against Jews later called Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) took place on November 9-10, 1938 throughout Germany and parts of Austria. Streets were covered in smashed glass. 92 Jews were beaten to death, 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps; and more than a thousand synagogues ransacked or set on fire. After Kristallnacht most Jewish organizations were closed. This day was a horrendous beginning of the Holocaust.