Around ten Jewish steles were defaced in the German military cemetery of Moulin-sous-Touvent, near Compiègne.
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“It was a horrible and scandalous scene”, told franceinfo Anne Brocvielle, the mayor of Moulin-sous-Touvent in Oise, where the German military cemetery is located where around ten Jewish steles were discovered degraded on Wednesday November 15. The elected official went to the cemetery, accompanied by her deputies, as soon as she heard the news at the beginning of the afternoon.
“Everything was on the ground, broken, really destroyed, we even had a stele that was moveddescribes the mayor. There, we really see the cruelty, the wickedness and the disrespect. Because moving a stele altogether, to tell you they are still well sealed, and tapping to cut them in two, that is not possible.”
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“These are acts of cruelty”
“I am very angry, I am scandalized by the lack of respect for the duty of memory, which is savagely sullied. For me, these are acts of cruelty. We cannot do things like that, it is unacceptable”, lamented Anne Brocvielle. The elected official underlines that the cemeteries of the First World War in Hauts-de-France are part of the heritage, and that everyone respects them. Anne Brocvielle called families on Wednesday evening to warn them, families who are often abroad and who regularly come to pay their respects at these graves.
During a press conference in Switzerland on Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron condemned “with the greatest force” the degradation of ten steles. Lhe head of state recalled his “personal engagement” has “to fight implacably and tirelessly against all forms of anti-Semitism”.
The national gendarmerie launched an investigation and the Compiègne public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for “violation of a grave, tomb, cinerary urn or monument built in memory of the dead committed due to race, ethnicity, nation or religion “. This military cemetery contains 1,903 Christian and Jewish graves of German soldiers who fought during the First World War.