A Jewish cemetery in Hungary has again been ravaged – this time to an unprecedented extent. Hungary’s prime minister called it a ‘barbaric’ act.
Approximately 20 graves were vandalized Sunday at a Jewish cemetery in Hungary to an extent that community leader Peter Weisz described as “unprecedented.”
Tombstones were smashed and human remains were scattered across the cemetery. Prime Minister Viktor Orban called it a “barbaric deed.”
The identity of the assailants is unknown. Police are investigating.
Weisz explained that some of the destroyed tombstones dated as far back as the late 1800s, belonging to ancestors of members of the recently re-established Jewish community.
Relations with other religious groups in the city of 30,000 people were “exemplary,” he added.
The cemetery, located in the city of Gyongyos 75 km northeast of Budapest, had been vandalized in the past, as were other Jewish cemeteries in the country. In July 2012, for example, 57 Jewish graves were desecrated in Kaposvr, which is situated 200 miles southwest of the capital. Swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti included threats of another Holocaust.
Orban vowed to launch a program this year to renovate neglected cemeteries.
In 2014, Hungary commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust, when 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed.
By: United with Israel Staff and AP