The Jewish cemetery in Vienna was sprayed with swastikas and set on fire

According to the Austrian newspaper OE24, local fire department spokesman Gerald Schimpf said that emergency services were alerted shortly after 8 a.m. on Wednesday. “It was probably already burning there during the night,” Schimpf said.

When firefighters arrived at the scene, most of the flames had already been extinguished, according to OE24. However, firefighters were still fighting smaller fire outbreaks and ventilating smoky rooms.

IKG said in a statement that the building affected by the fire was temporarily closed. There was also “significant” damage to property. However, the graves can still be visited.

According to Vienna police, the cause of the fire is still unclear, as is the question of how the perpetrator or perpetrators got into the cemetery grounds at night, police spokeswoman Julia Schick said.

The swastika and the surname of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler were also sprayed with orange paint on the outer walls of the Jewish part of the cemetery.

“After the incident at the central cemetery, the (Federal) Office for the Protection of the Constitution is intensively and in all directions conducting an investigation,” said the State Police Directorate in Vienna.

“This heinous anti-Semitic act cannot be taken lightly,” wrote the non-profit organization European Jewish Congress on the X network. “We stand behind the Jewish community of Vienna and we hope that the police will find the perpetrator,” she added.

After the attack by the Palestinian terrorist movement Hamas on Israel, the level of terror alert was raised in Austria, the newspaper OE24 reported, according to which there was also an increase in the protection of Jewish institutions.

Vienna police said on Wednesday after the incident that, in “close cooperation with the Jewish community, they are concentrating on the protection of Jews living in Austria”.

An unknown perpetrator sprayed stars of David on several houses in the south of Paris on Tuesday. The traditional symbol of the Jewish people was misused by the Nazis during the Second World War to mark the Jews and separate them from the rest of the population. According to the local prosecutor’s office, it may be related to a racially or religiously motivated crime. If proven, the perpetrator would face up to four years in prison or a fine of up to 30,000 euros (about 735,000 crowns).

According to the mayor of the district, Carine Petit, they refer to “the practices of the 1930s and World War II that led to the extermination of millions of Jews.”

“The people who did this had a clear intention to intimidate,” said Samuel Lejoyeux, president of the French Union of Jewish Students (UEJF), according to the RTBF station.