A monument erected to thank the residents of the Bulgarian town of Vidin for preventing the deportation of their Jewish neighbors during the Second World War has been defaced with anti-Semitic slogans, the Shalom Organization of Jews in Bulgaria announced on Monday.
Erected in 2003, the obelisk was "a token of gratitude to the urban community, which did not allow the deportation of their compatriots,” the communal organization wrote on Facebook. According to the community’s post, Mayor Ognian Tzenkov described the vandalism, which included the words “Palestine,” “Allah” and “Hamas,” as "an outrageous and unacceptable act” and pledged to clean the damage immediately.
Islamic crescents and Palestinian flag stickers were also used to deface the monument.
In a letter to the Mayor, Shalom President Dr. Alexander Oscar stated that "the monument will continue to be a symbol of the brotherhood and long-lived history between our two nations.”
During the war, Bulgaria instituted a number of draconian laws against its Jewish community and deported more than 13,000 Jews to their deaths from the territories it occupied. Intense domestic opposition prevented the government from deporting any of the Jews residing in its core provinces, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In late June, the Jewish community spoke out strongly following a violent assault against the family of the country’s Deputy Chief Mufti, prompting the Mufti’s office to release a statement calling for "serious work in the sphere of interreligious dialogue, faithful tolerance and the unhindered coexistence of people of different ethnicities, religions and nationalities on the territory of Bulgaria.”
Bulgaria is a popular tourist destination for Israelis. In 2012 a suicide bomber connected to Hezbollah killed five Israeli tourists and a local bus driver in an attack in the city of Burgas.