Tweet
Paris anti-Semitic T-shirt probe
French prosecutors have opened an investigation after T-shirts carrying anti-Semitic slogans were seen on sale in a shop in Paris.
The tops carried slogans in German and Polish that translate as "Jews forbidden from entering the park".
They were reproduced from Nazi signs from 1940 that targeted the Jewish community in the Polish town of Lodz.
Some 95% of more than 200,000 Jewish people there would die in concentration camps during World War II.
The sales assistant at the Parisian store, in the Belleville district, said one person had bought five of the grey, sleeveless garments for about 18 euros ($27) each.
She said she did not understand what the inscription meant.
The neighbourhood of Belleville in eastern Paris has been the site of ongoing scuffles between groups of Jewish youngsters and youths of North African origin.
France has one of the largest Jewish communities outside Israel, numbering about half a million people.
The writing on a T-shirt that was on sale in Paris last weekend reads "Juden Eintritt in die parkanlagen verboten" and "Zydome wstep do parku wzbroniony," which mean "No Entry to the Park for Jews" in German and Polish, respectively. The texts reproduce those on anti-Jewish banners that were put up in the Lodz ghetto in 1940.
The shirt was found and bought for 18 euros in Belleville, in Paris's 19th district, by the French National Bureau of Vigilance against anti-Semitism (BNVCA), a group monitoring anti-Semitic incidents in France.
Ninety-five percent of the 200,000 Jews who were held in the Lodz ghetto in central Poland were later killed in concentration camps.
The texts reproduce those on anti-Jewish banners that were put up in the Lodz ghetto in 1940.
An AFP reporter found five of the grey, sleeveless woolen tops, labeled with the brand "Introfancy IF," on sale early Tuesday, but when he returned shortly afterwards they had been withdrawn.
The sales assistant said they had just been bought by a single customer. She added that she did not know the meaning of the inscriptions.
Sammy Ghozlan, head of the National Bureau of BNVCA said he had filed a formal complaint with the Paris police.
Lithuania condemns graffiti
In Lithuania, President Valdas Adamkus on Monday condemned a Nazi graffiti attack on a Jewish community centre in the Baltic state's capital, Vilnius, calling it an affront to the entire country.
"Contempt targeted at the nation which suffered from genocide is not casual hooliganism. It is a destructive and sordid act against Lithuania as a whole, not only Lithuania's Jewish community," Adamkus said in a statement.
Increased anti-Semitism and Holocaust revisionism in Lithuania prompted the Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial Center to protest to Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas ***kilas Sunday.
"The public outcry has yet to yield a fair and reasonable Lithuanian response," Yad VaShem chairman Avner Shalev wrote the prime minister.
The tops carried slogans in German and Polish that translate as "Jews forbidden from entering the park".
They were reproduced from Nazi signs from 1940 that targeted the Jewish community in the Polish town of Lodz.
Some 95% of more than 200,000 Jewish people there would die in concentration camps during World War II.
The sales assistant at the Parisian store, in the Belleville district, said one person had bought five of the grey, sleeveless garments for about 18 euros ($27) each.
She said she did not understand what the inscription meant.
The neighbourhood of Belleville in eastern Paris has been the site of ongoing scuffles between groups of Jewish youngsters and youths of North African origin.
France has one of the largest Jewish communities outside Israel, numbering about half a million people.
The writing on a T-shirt that was on sale in Paris last weekend reads "Juden Eintritt in die parkanlagen verboten" and "Zydome wstep do parku wzbroniony," which mean "No Entry to the Park for Jews" in German and Polish, respectively. The texts reproduce those on anti-Jewish banners that were put up in the Lodz ghetto in 1940.
The shirt was found and bought for 18 euros in Belleville, in Paris's 19th district, by the French National Bureau of Vigilance against anti-Semitism (BNVCA), a group monitoring anti-Semitic incidents in France.
Ninety-five percent of the 200,000 Jews who were held in the Lodz ghetto in central Poland were later killed in concentration camps.
The texts reproduce those on anti-Jewish banners that were put up in the Lodz ghetto in 1940.
An AFP reporter found five of the grey, sleeveless woolen tops, labeled with the brand "Introfancy IF," on sale early Tuesday, but when he returned shortly afterwards they had been withdrawn.
The sales assistant said they had just been bought by a single customer. She added that she did not know the meaning of the inscriptions.
Sammy Ghozlan, head of the National Bureau of BNVCA said he had filed a formal complaint with the Paris police.
Lithuania condemns graffiti
In Lithuania, President Valdas Adamkus on Monday condemned a Nazi graffiti attack on a Jewish community centre in the Baltic state's capital, Vilnius, calling it an affront to the entire country.
"Contempt targeted at the nation which suffered from genocide is not casual hooliganism. It is a destructive and sordid act against Lithuania as a whole, not only Lithuania's Jewish community," Adamkus said in a statement.
Increased anti-Semitism and Holocaust revisionism in Lithuania prompted the Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial Center to protest to Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas ***kilas Sunday.
"The public outcry has yet to yield a fair and reasonable Lithuanian response," Yad VaShem chairman Avner Shalev wrote the prime minister.