Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said that the two anti-Semitic incidents that took place in his country on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day — an act of vandalism in a synagogue and burning of an Israeli flag — are "very worrying" and stated that judicial proceedings concerning the cases have been initiated.
"This certainly seems to be the case in Turku and flags were burned in Tampere as well. It is very worrying. But what can be done? We do have cases ongoing in the justice system and that is good. I will say more about the matter," Niinisto said, as quoted by Finnish broadcaster Yle.
The Holocaust refers to the period from 1933, when Adolf Hitler assumed the position of the German chancellor, to 1945, the year the World War II ended. It involved the mass persecution and murder of German and European Jewry, culminating in the ethnic cleansing program, dubbed as the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." Jews were relocated to ghettos and concentration and extermination camps where they were either murdered or died from malnutrition, disease, hunger and inhumane treatment. Six million Jews died throughout the tragic period.
