Wave of racist vandalism continues in north east Poland

photo - PAP archives/Leon Stankiewicz

The former graveyard had recently been provided with a small memorial garden, but on Monday morning, it emerged that vandals had wreaked havoc at the site.

Bushes were uprooted and a Star of David fashioned from boxwood shrubbery was destroyed.

The perpetrators then marked a swastika at the centre of the garden.

The incident follows on from a series of apparent hate crimes in the area in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Poland's leading counterintelligence squad, the Internal Security Agency (ABW) joined the investigation after a monument commemorating the Jedwabne pogrom was defaced.

Police have theorised that an organised group is behind the crimes, which include an arson attack on a Muslim Cultural Centre in Bialystok, the defacement of 28 Lithuanian road signs, fascist graffiti on an 18th century synagogue and an attack on the residence of a mixed Polish-Pakistani couple, by an unidentified arsonist.

Last week, five teenagers were arrested for daubing fascist slogans on buildings in the town of Krynki, near Bialystok, but police have not indicated that the group was connected to the other crimes. (nh/pg)