Vandals carry out second anti-semetic act

  • 2010-12-14
  • TBT Staff

Two similar incidents of anti-semetic vandalism have occurred in the Latvian capital in less than a week.

RIGA - Latvian police have launched an investigation into the city's second case of anti-semetic vandalism in less than a week. 

Vandals on Dec. 12 defiled with white paint the monument dedicated to Zanis Lipke, who helped protect Jews during WWII. The vandalism case comes just six days after a similar incident in Riga's Jewish graveyard, in which vandals painted swastikas on nearly 100 gravestones.

President Valdis Zatlers condemned the acts and praised the courage of Lipke's actions during the war.

"Zanis Lipke is a person who deserves people's admiration, affection and respect. The act of vandalism, which has been committed tonight... must be strongly condemned," he said.

Lipke is credited with saving more than 50 Jews from death. Of around 60,000 Jews in Latvia at the start of WWII, only 3,500 survived.