Desecration of a military cemetery in Le Havre
Only few days after the desecration of military cemetery Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, about 180 graves, a quarter of them Jewish, were damaged in the large Sainte-Marie Cemetery. The graves were “severely damaged,” having been covered by drawings of swastikas and Celtic crosses in black paint. Crosses, steles and gravestone were knocked over and smashed to pieces with no particular logic. The desecration of the cemetery was condemned by the President Jacques Chirac, who denounced “an insult to the memories of our dead and a wound to every French citizen.” Although this is not the first time Havre has experienced grave desecration, it is the first time perpetrators have been arrested. Five young men, including two 17-year-old, were arrested on the scene of the crime and put into custody. These suspects may belong to the “Gothic Circle.” Those who took part in the desecration face convictions for “severe destruction or defacement of someone else’s propriety committed by a limited number of people, violation or desecration of graves committed because of the true or presupposed ethnic group, nation, race or religion of the deceased.”
In the end of January 2007, 154 graves were knocked over and smashed, crosses having been knocked to the ground. In March 2007, a mosque was covered with drawings of swastikas and Celtic Crosses. In March 2006, huge swastikas were drawn with red paint on eleven Jewish graves and one military grave. During the summer of 2005, other buildings, including a synagogue in the city centre, were defaced.
Source: Libération, 180 tombes profanées dans un cimatière du Havre, 22 April 2007, http://www.liberation.fr/societe/010120072-180-tombes-profanees-dans-un-cimetiere-du-havre
