Jan. 3




GERMANY:

Swastikas Are Found on Berlins Holocaust Memorial, AP Reports


Swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans were found on 12 of the 2,700 gray
stone slabs of Berlins Holocaust memorial, the Associated Press reported.

Security guards discovered the graffiti at lunchtime today, and
authorities ordered its removal, according to a police statement, the AP
said. Similar vandalism has been reported in the past at the memorial,
which opened in 2005 near the Brandenburg Gate to commemorate the 6
million Jews who died during the Holocaust, the report said.

(source: Bloomberg News)



USA--VIRGINIA:

Swastika graffiti shows up in Staunton, Augusta County after Christmas


The spray-painted swastikas showed up the day after Christmas.

Now Staunton businesses and residents are cleaning up the mess after
vandalism hit at least eight spots, including Elliott Chevrolet, Food Lion
and Central Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

Staunton police and the Augusta County Sheriffs Office said Monday that
the black and silver markings had been found on cars, windows and
buildings.

"We've never had this many done," Elliott Chevrolet General Manager Jeff
Jordan said, referring to the eight cars tagged with swastikas and
six-pointed stars. "It's a shame, with things as challenging as they are
for our business, to have to deal with this. The timing was especially
bad."

He estimated damage at $5,000 to $8,000.

"We don't know what we can get off and replace," Jordan said.

Authorities cited similar markings all across town: at Texaco on
Springhill Road, Pets N Pals on Greenville Avenue, Central Coca-Cola
Bottling Company on Christians Creek Road, Food Lion on Orchard Hill
Circle, Mountain Valley Truck and Trailer on Second Street, Bishop Realty
on US 11, on a home on Mary Gray Lane and a vehicle on West Johnson
Street.

In many cases, markings included a six-pointed star, a swastika and a
lightning bolt.

Business owners at Bishop Realty and Mountain Valley have already covered
the markings with fresh paint, but other victims have not.

The incident at the car dealership could hold the key to breaking the
case: Jordan said a man was sleeping in his car in the parking lot while
waiting for the service department to open. That man saw the perpetrators,
Jordan said, but could not provide much more than a vehicle description to
authorities.

(source: The Virginian)





******************


USA----CALIFORNIA


Ventura sheriffs probe swastikas at Jewish school


The Ventura County sheriff's department is investigating an incident of
graffiti vandalism at a Jewish preschool in Camarillo.

Shira Muchnik, an administrator at the Gan Camarillo Preschool, says she
noticed a row of swastikas painted on the sidewalk in front of the school
along with the words "white power" Wednesday morning and notified
authorities.

The incident marks the third time this year that the school has been
defaced with the Nazi symbol.

Sheriff's officials say they have classified the incident as a hate crime.

(source: Associated Press)






AUSTRIA:

Austria probes alleged Nazi war criminal Bichler


Austrian authorities are investigating an alleged Nazi war criminal
living in Tyrol who was convicted in absentia in Italy for his
involvement in the 1944 slaughter of hundreds of civilians, an
official said Monday.

The probe of Hubert Bichler, 88, began earlier this year, said Wilfried
Siegele, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in the western
city of Innsbruck.

Bichler was one of 10 former Nazi SS members convicted in absentia by an
Italian military tribunal in January 2007 for Italy's worst World War
II-era civilian massacre.

In 1944, Nazi troops slaughtered more than 700 residents in Marzabotto
most of them children, women or the elderly in what was ostensibly a hunt
for resistance fighters.

Siegele said the Justice Ministry was waiting for Italian authorities to
provide Bichler-related documents. He declined to provide more details. A
Justice Ministry spokeswoman did not return repeated calls for comment.

The Kurier newspaper reported that Bichler lives in the Tyrollean town of
Hopfgarten, not far from Kitzbuehel.

The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomed news of the probe but
said the Alpine republic could be doing so much more.

"I wouldn't be too impressed by the fact that an investigation has been
opened because almost none of the investigations in Austria have resulted
in trials," said Efraim Zuroff, head of the center's Israel branch.

"There have been no convictions of Nazi war criminals in Austria in more
than three decades and that's not for a lack of Nazi war criminals," he
added during a telephone interview.

The Wiesenthal Center is particularly upset by the case of Milivoj Asner,
a war crimes suspect living in southern Austria who is ranked No. 4 on the
center's list of most-wanted Nazi war crimes suspects. The 95-year-old is
wanted for atrocities against Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in Croatia.

Austrian authorities say Asner suffers from dementia and is unfit to stand
trial, but have refused the center's request to send a foreign medical
expert in to evaluate him.

Austria also has offered 50,000 euros ($68,400) for information leading to
the arrest of Aribert Heim, a concentration camp doctor, or Alois Brunner,
the right-hand man of Adolf Eichmann, the Gestapo officer who organized
the extermination of the Jews.

(source: Associated Press)