A Holocaust memorial in Philadelphia was defaced with a swastika image

By Danny Freeman, CNN

(CNN) — A public memorial in Philadelphia dedicated to educating visitors about the atrocities of the Holocaust was defaced early Sunday morning with an image of a large swastika, police and the memorial’s executive director told CNN.

The Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation called the incident a “disgusting act of antisemitism,” one that comes amid what experts say is a staggering increase of antisemitic incidents across the US in the months since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

The Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza was defaced at roughly 1:30 a.m. Sunday with an image of a large swastika, Eszter Kutas, the executive director of the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, told CNN. The plaza, which was completed in 2018, is about a five-minute walk from Philadelphia City Hall.

The incident was captured on video by a security camera.

“The perpetrator was wearing a ski mask, so his face is hard to see,” Kutas said. “However, his clothes may be recognized by the general public.”

The Philadelphia Police Department said officers responded just after 2 p.m. Sunday to a report of a swastika symbol spray-painted on the wall and “immediately launched an investigation.”

Police said the suspect is “an unknown male wearing a black mask and a dark jacket (possibly brown) with a stripe across the chest and down the arms.”

In a Facebook post, the foundation said the swastika would be removed “in short order” and called out a spike in acts of anti-Jewish hatred across Philadelphia and the nation.

In the three months since the October 7 attack by Hamas, antisemitic events in the US “skyrocketed,” reaching 3,283 incidents by January 7, the Anti-Defamation League said in a news release earlier this month. That number represented roughly a 360% increase in reported antisemitic incidents compared to the same time frame a year earlier, the ADL said.

The reported incidents included more than 1,300 rallies with antisemitic rhetoric, more than 1,300 incidents of verbal or written harassment, more than 550 cases of vandalism and 60 incidents of physical assault, the ADL said. It’s unclear whether rallies were tracked last year.

Anyone with information about the perpetrator in the Philadelphia memorial plaza incident is urged to contact Philadelphia police, the memorial director said.

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