Graffiti of a swastika and the words “Auschwitz Welcome” were found on the window of a Los Angeles bus stop on January 11.
Stop Antisemitism tweeted out a photo of the graffiti, stating that it was found on the corner of Vineland Avenue and Ventura Boulevard. “This vile hatred must never be tolerated in your city,” Stop Antisemitism tweeted to Mayor Karen Bass.
“Auschwitz welcome” with a swastika were spotted last night on a bus stop window in LA (Vineland and Ventura, northeast corner @LAPDHQ
This vile hatred must never be tolerated in your city @KarenBassLA @MayorOfLA pic.twitter.com/t9RN6iJml6
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 12, 2023
Other Jewish groups also condemned the graffiti.
“This vile graffiti is an unsettling reminder that anti-Jewish hate is the fastest growing category of hate crimes in America,” American Jewish Committee Los Angeles Assistant Director Odin Ozdil said in a statement to the Journal. “No community should have to be confronted with threats to their existence, especially those that evoke such horrific trauma as the Holocaust. We encourage local authorities to be unrelenting in their pursuit and prosecution of the perpetrator of this hateful act.”
“[The] Jewish community needs the help and empathy from our non-Jewish neighbors if we are to push back on the distressing anti-Semitism on our streets and on social media,” Simon Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda Rabbi Abraham Cooper similarly said in a statement to the Journal. “Perpetrators don’t worry that a shrinking police presence would detect such hate.”
StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder Roz Rothstein, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, also said in a statement to the Journal, “We’re grateful to Mayor Karen Bass for taking seriously the dangerous issues of anti-Jewish bigotry and to the LAPD for exposing this vile hate speech. Vicious Nazi imagery like this has no place in civil society. This is yet another example of why Holocaust education is so important.”
