Swastikas, Other Anti-Semitic Graffiti Found On Oregon Holocaust Memorial
By Zuri Anderson
May 3, 2021
Portland Police are looking for the person or people responsible for vandalizing the Oregon Holocaust Memorial, according to Oregon Live.
Reporters said swastikas were scrawled across the memorial's stone wall along with the numbers "1488," a symbol popular among neo-Nazis and other white supremacists. Officers contacted the parks bureau staff about the anti-Semitic graffiti around 11 a.m. Sunday (May 2), according to Mark Ross, a Portland Parks & Recreation spokesman.
Maintenance crews removed the graffiti, but the vandalism is under investigation by police, Ross added. Authorities offered no comment to reporters on the matter.
The memorial, which is located in Washington Park, was dedicated in 2004 to the victims who died in six Nazi extermination camps. Their names are engraved in granite panels along with the surviving relatives who live in Oregon and southwest Washington.
Someone scrawled swastikas & "1488" across the Oregon Holocaust Memorial wall in Portland's Washington Park.
— Shane D. Kavanaugh (@shanedkavanaugh) May 3, 2021
The wall contains names of people who died in six Nazi extermination camps, as well as their surviving relatives who live in Oregon / SW Wash. https://t.co/n3rB2ON5xc
Last month, an auction house in Portland faced backlash for listing a dagger belonging to a notable Nazi leader.
Photo: Getty Images