Statue of teenage Holocaust victim vandalized with pro-Hamas graffiti in Amsterdam, sparking criticism from Dutch leaders.
By World Israel News Staff
Anti-Israel vandals targeted a statue of Anne Frank in Amsterdam this week, defacing the memorial to the Holocaust victim with graffiti.
On Tuesday, the statue of Anne Frank in the Rivierenbuurt park was vandalized, with the word “Gaza” painted in red under Frank’s name.
Dutch leaders were quick to condemn the vandalism.
“It is truly shameful that someone would think to draw attention to the Palestinian cause by smearing an image of Anne Frank, an international symbol of the Holocaust,” tweeted Amsterdam councilor Stijn Nijssen.
District chairman Bart Vink slammed the vandalism as “disrespectful,” vowing to have the graffiti “removed as quickly as possible.”
Gert-Jan Jimmink, a Dutch bookseller who pushed for the statue to be placed in the park, told AT5 that the memorial “represents the 14,000 Jews from this neighborhood who were murdered.”
“It has nothing to do with current events.”
Femke Halsema, Mayor of Amsterdam, took to Instagram to castigate the defacing of the statue.
“This young girl, who was so brutally murdered by the Nazis at the age of 15, reminds us and our city every day of humanity and gentleness in the most difficult circumstances.”
“How can you get it in your heart to make her memory so violent? Whoever it was, shame on you!”
“No Palestinian has been helped by smearing her precious statue.”
The Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI), a group based in the Hague, said that a police complaint had been filed over the incident.
The CIDI also took to social media in a post sarcastically calling the vandalism “anti-Zionism.”
“The statue of Anne Frank on the Merwede Square in Amsterdam, where the Jewish diarist lived until she went into hiding in 1942, has been defaced with red paint and the text ‘Gaza.’”
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