Anti-Semitism group says 10 tombstones smashed in Romania

BUCHAREST, Romania – An anti-Semitism organization says vandals have smashed 10 tombstones at a cemetery in the Romanian capital in “a premeditated act.”

The Center for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism in Romania said Tuesday the tombstones were broken into pieces at the Jewish cemetery in southern Bucharest overnight Monday, Holocaust Remembrance Day, when the millions of Jews killed by the Nazis are commemorated.

The centre called for an investigation and for the perpetrators to face justice.

Bucharest police said in a statement that three youths aged 13 to 16 were being investigated on suspicion of profaning the graves.

Romania deported 150,000 Jews and 25,000 Roma to concentration camps in an area of the Soviet Union controlled by the Axis powers from 1942 to 1944, when the country was run by pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu.

After communism ended, many denied or downplayed Romania’s role in the Holocaust.

An estimated 6,000 Jews live in Romania today.