Fire set, swastikas spray-painted on wall at Jewish cemetery in Austria

By David Matthews, New York Daily News, November 1, 2023

Image: This photo taken early on Nov. 1, 2023 shows swastika symbols sprayed on an external wall in front of the ceremony hall at the Jewish part of the Central Cemetery in Vienna, Austria, after police cordoned off the area. (Credit: GEORG HOCHMUTH/APA/AFP via Getty Images)

A fire was set and swastikas were spray-painted on walls in the Jewish section of a cemetery in Austria.

Oskar Deutsch, the president of Jewish Community of Vienna, said the alleged arson and graffiti were discovered Wednesday morning at the city’s Central Cemetery. The fire burned the entrance lobby to a ceremonial hall in the cemetery’s Jewish section and swastikas were spray-painted on the exterior walls, Deutsch added.

He said police and the fire department are investigating.

The fire started sometime in the night and mostly burned itself out by the time the fire service was alerted around 8 a.m., spokesperson Gerald Schimpf told the Austria Press Agency.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer condemned the vandalism on social media.

“I strongly condemn the attack on the Jewish cemetery in Vienna,” Nehammer wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Anti-semitism has no place in our society and will be fought with all political and legal means. I hope the perpetrators are identified quickly.”

Earlier this week, the FBI said threats against Jewish and Muslim communities had risen sharply since Hamas’ attack on Israel in October.

The Central Cemetery, which opened in 1874, is the second-largest graveyard in Europe. It’s the final resting place of each post-WWII Austrian president, composer Ludwig van Beethoven, actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr and physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, among many others.