Stars of David were spray painted on homes in Paris on Tuesday night in what political leaders called a chilling evocation of “the 1930s.”
Some 60 Stars of David were left stenciled on walls in the 14th arrondissement of the French capital as the nation as a whole deals with a rise in antisemitic incidents.
The move recalled the same markings being delivered on Jewish-owned businesses in Berlin which were marked with the Star of David during the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.
File/A picture taken in Berlin shows a Jewish-run shop covered in Nazi anti-Jewish graffiti during the June 1938 antisemitic campaign ordered by Adolf Hitler. (PIGISTE/FRANCE PRESSE VOIR/AFP via Getty)
A man enters a building whose facade is covered with Stars of David painted during the night, in the Alesia district of Paris. (GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty Images)
Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, said the stars would be removed and an investigation launched.
“Antisemitism continues to kill,” Mr Grégoire said. “We will never give up the fight.”
Similar tags appeared over the weekend in suburbs of the city including Vanves, Fontenay-aux-Roses and Aubervilliers, AFP reports.
Retail outlets were also targeted.
In the nearby town of Saint-Ouen they were accompanied by inscriptions such as “Palestine will overcome”.
“Some want to terrorize French Jews by using the methods of the 1930s. They must be quickly found and severely punished,” the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) posted on X immediately after the attacks became apparent.
Since the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, leading to a war in Gaza, the French Interior Ministry reported nearly 800 anti-Semitic incidents in France.
On Sunday, the French Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, reported more than 400 arrests for “anti-Semitic acts.”