‘Absolutely Reprehensible’: US Anne Frank Memorial Vandalized With Swastika Flyers - Photos

00:13 GMT, 10 December 2020

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Mary F.

The latest data by the Anti-Defamation League shows that there were more than 2,100 anti-Semitic incidents of assault, vandalism and harassment in the US in 2019, an increase of 12% over the previous year and the highest rate in at least four decades.

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The Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise, Idaho, was vandalized on Monday with swastika stickers and flyers, becoming the most recent high-profile case of anti-Semitism in the US.

In a statement on Facebook, the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights shared photos of flyers bearing swastikas and the phrase “we are everywhere” plastered across the monument, which is jointly maintained by the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights and the Boise Department of Parks and Recreation.

“These stickers were plastered throughout the Memorial yesterday,” the Wassmuth Center shared on Facebook on Wednesday. “I fear for what is happening to our community.

“The Idaho Anne Frank Human Right Memorial was built as a physical statement of our shared values,” the center added in another post. “One of those values includes standing up to confront hate.”

Dan Prinzing, the executive director of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, also told The Hill that act marks "a really sad day for us." He referred to the memorial as “the heart” of Boise and divulged that the organization is questioning why “hate has become emboldened."

In a news conference Wednesday, Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee confirmed that the incident was reported Tuesday morning, the Idaho Press reported. The incident, however, is believed to have occurred between Monday evening and early Tuesday morning.

"We’re trying to figure out if this is something that’s localized here to Boise or something that has a larger connection," Lee said, while strongly condemning the act of vandalism.

"The vandalism is absolutely reprehensible and values like hate have no place in our community, and they are not in keeping with all of the things that makes Boise the special place that it is," he noted, the Idaho Press reported.

Police also confirmed that they have launched an investigation into the incident and are reviewing surveillance video captured around the area, KTVB reported.

The Wassmuth Center for Human Rights was founded in 1996. The center opened the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise several years later in 2002.

The memorial “inspires people of all ages to contemplate the moral implications of their actions and the scope of their civic responsibilities,” according to the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights’ website.