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Partial view taken on January 27, 2009 in Strasbourg, eastern France, of swastikas painted on some tombs in the Jewish Kronenbourg cemetery, probably the night before. This vandalism occured as the world marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.
Photo: Johanna Leguerre in Strasbourg for AFP Copyright 2010
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STRASBOURG (EJP)---A Jewish cemetery in Strasbourg, eastern France, was desecrated Wednesday, with at least 18 gravestones marked with swastikas and overturned, CRIF, the umbrella group of Jewish institutions in France, said.
The inscription "juden raus" (Jews out) was found on one tomb at the Cronenbourg cemetery.
The desecration in a Strasbourg cemetery came as Jews marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps where Nazis killed 1.1 million Jews.
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office issued a statement in which he "firmly condemns this unbearable act, the expression of odious racism.”
The statement asked that those responsible be quickly identified and their acts "treated with the severity called for."
Around 600,000 Jews live in France, the largest Jewish community in Western Europe.