Swastika flag hoisted at French graveyard honoring Muslim World War I soldier

13 Oct 2004

Vandals hoisted a Nazi flag and stole a tombstone honoring a French Muslim soldier killed in World War I at a cemetery in eastern France, local officials said Tuesday. The attack at the Vieil-Armand military cemetery in the Alsatian town of Wattwiller took place over the weekend, according to a regional government spokesman. A Nazi flag was found hanging on a pole usually reserved for the French flag, and a tombstone for a Muslim who died in 1915 was broken and disappeared from the site. There was no claim of responsibility, and officials are investigating the incident. There are no Jewish tombs at the cemetery and only the one Muslim grave that was vandalized, regional police said.