Hate is, unfortunately, everywhere in America these days, and there appears to be no end in sight.
The recent uptick in bigotry in America has watched many of the most hateful among us rising from the shadows to spread their filth in the most obscene ways possible. Where we once feared underground networks of neo-nazis and other such groups, these organizations have stepped out into the light in recent years, and their tactics are absolutely disgraceful to say the least.
The only Anne Frank memorial in the US was defaced this week with stickers bearing swastikas and the words “We are everywhere.” Boise, Idaho, police chief Ryan Lee called the vandalism, which happened late Monday, “absolutely reprehensible” and said the department has reached out to the Anti-Defamation League, USA Today reports. The stickers were placed on statues, including a life-sized one depicting the 15-year-old Holocaust victim holding her famous diary as she and her family hid from the Nazis. The vandals also targeted a photo of Bill Wassmuth, a former Catholic priest who confronted neo-Nazis in northern Idaho.
The memorial has been a frequent target of these prejudiced attacks.
Dan Prinzing, executive director of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, which maintains the site, says the center plans to expand the security system at the memorial. The site, which was dedicated in 2002, was also targeted in 2017, when vandals who left anti-Semitic graffiti caused $20,000 in damages. “It’s a sad statement in our community to have such a public statement of hate,” Prinzing tells the Idaho Statesman. “Is this what we’re becoming?” he asks. Lee says police “are committed to ferreting out … those who would foment hate in the community.”
Just a year ago, the Anne Frank memorial itself was similarly targeted with antisemitic epithets.
