Anti-Semitic and fascist slogans have be found on the wall of a Jewish cemetery in a village in Romania, where 126 Jews died during World War II. Jewish community officials discovered the slogans written in big red letters in German and reading "Jews out" and "Heil Hitler". The messages were surrounded by swastikas. A swastika was also scrawled within the Star of David. There are 126 graves in the Jewish cemetery in Camaras, located 350 kilometers northwest of the capital Bucharest. All buried there were killed during World War II. The cemetery is a pilgrimage site for Jews from Romania and abroad. Authorities were investigating the desecration, which could carry a prison sentence of up to five years.
Romania was home to 760,000 Jews before 1940. An estimated 420,000 died after being deported to concentration camps by the country's pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu and the Hungarian regime, which then controlled parts of today's Romania. 300,000 Romanian Jews emigrated to Israel during the Communist period which lasted until 1989. Today, about 6,000 Jews live in Romania.