Head of local Jewish community calls vandalism an ‘attack on all of Austria,’ says police investigating; chancellor condemns ‘anti-Semitic defilement’

By AP and TOI STAFF
Illustrative: Larger-than-life portraits by Italian photographer Luigi Toscano line a fence bordering United Nations headquarters, January 23, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Illustrative: Larger-than-life portraits by Italian photographer Luigi Toscano line a fence bordering United Nations headquarters, January 23, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Photos of Holocaust survivors exhibited on a central Vienna street have been defaced with swastikas, drawing condemnation from political and Jewish leaders.

Broadcaster ORF reported Wednesday that ESRA, a group that brought the work by German-Italian photographer Luigi Toscano to the Austrian capital, said several photos were daubed with swastikas and other graffiti on Tuesday. The exhibition opened on part of the Ringstrasse, a busy road that runs around downtown Vienna, on May 7 and the group said some portraits were previously damaged with knives.

The leader of Austria’s Jewish community, Oskar Deutsch, said that “it is an anti-Semitic attack on all of Austria” and that police are investigating.

Austria has seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in recent years, as well as a surge in support for the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which became the junior partner in Kurz’s government after elections in 2017.
The head of the FPOe, which was founded in the 1950s by former Nazis, resigned Saturday after a hidden camera sting showed him promising public contracts in return for campaign help from a fake Russian backer, a development welcomed by the head of Austria’s Jewish community.