The front door of an apartment building in Berlin was marked with the Star of David this week amid increasing tension across Europe in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel.
Harkening back to the dark days of the 1930s when the Nazis would brand Jewish businesses with the Star of David, a young woman of Jewish heritage was horrified to find that her home in the Prenzlauer Berg area of the German capitol had been branded with the same symbol this week.
Speaking to the Bild newspaper, she said: “I was sitting in the car with a friend yesterday. When we got home I saw the Star of David and got a huge shock.”
She said that upon seeing the marking, she called the police, but said: “They told me they had no capacity and asked for an online notification.”
The police did, however, advise the young woman to remove the Star of David herself, warning her: “You don’t know what forces that would otherwise attract.”
According to the report, the police have yet to contact her after she filed an official complaint of property damage and suspicion of incitement, which was confirmed by the German paper. Therefore, it is currently unknown who was behind the graffiti.
TOPSHOT – A picture taken in Berlin shows a Jewish-run shop inscripted with nazi antisemitic graffitis during the June 1938 antisemitic campaign. Ordered by the Nazi party NSDAP in November 1938, rioters burnt down 267 synagogues, shattered the windows of some 7500 Jewish shops, desecrated Jewish cemeteries and beat people, 09 November 1938. Splintering glass panes and broken glass in the streets gave the pogrom the downplaying name “Reichskristallnacht”, or Crystal Night. AFP PHOTO / FRANCE PRESSE VOIR (Photo by PIGISTE / FRANCE PRESSE VOIR / AFP) (Photo by PIGISTE/FRANCE PRESSE VOIR/AFP via Getty Images)
Responding to the ominous incident, the Israeli Embassy in Berlin wrote on social media: “Berlin 2023: Houses where Jews live will be marked again. This brings back the worst memories, especially in Germany, and is unbearable.
“Anti-Semites make no distinction between Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora. They want to destroy all of us without exception.”
It comes as Jewish communities across Germany have issued warnings against wearing the kippah or speaking Hebrew in public over fears of antisemitic attacks amid the violent conflict in Israel following the murderous terror attacks from Hamas that left over 1,300 people dead in Israel.
The security department of the Jewish Community in Munich (IKG) told its members to “behave inconspicuously,” adding: “Be alert, keep a low profile and avoid pro-Palestine demonstrations.”
There have also been reports of Jewish families keeping their children home from school and daycare centres over safety concerns.
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