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New twist on oldest hatred: Swastikas deface Christian headstones, but Jewish ones untouched

Dozens of headstones in French cemetery defaced with swastikas – but Jewish graves next door untouched.

By Algemeiner Staff

In a seemingly bizarre act of vandalism, dozens of headstones at a Christian cemetery near Paris were defaced with Nazi swastikas on Sunday night, while graves at an adjoining Jewish cemetery were left untouched.

Sixty-seven graves at the cemetery in the town of Fontainebleau were daubed with the Nazi symbol in pink, white and silver, according to the local mayor.

The words “Biobananas” and “Charles” were also daubed on some of the headstones, but there were “no antisemitic inscriptions,” the mayor, Frédéric Valletoux, told reporters.

The Jewish cemetery situated alongside was undisturbed by the vandals, however.

Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, declared on Twitter that he was “sickened by the desecration of the cemetery.”

“Everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this ignominy,” Darmanin pledged.

Valérie Pécresse — president of the Ile-de-France region — said the desecration was a “despicable act” which, she claimed without elaboration, had been carried out by “neo-Nazis.”

Residents of Fontainebleau expressed outrage at the act.

“People who do that do not know what a swastika means,” one local resident told Le Figaro. “It is shocking, it is lamentable.”