Anne Frank memorial in Boise vandalized with swastikas

Swastikas were pasted throughout the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise, Idaho, on Tuesday, the latest high-profile incident of anti-Semitism in the United States.

The Wassmuth Center for Human Rights shared on Facebook that flyers reading “we are everywhere” were plastered throughout the memorial along with swastika stickers.

The images show one of the flyers on the back of a statue depicting Anne Frank, the teenage girl who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after hiding from with her family in Amsterdam from the Nazis.

The flyer was plastered on the diary that Frank is depicted holding in the statue. 

Another image shows a statue at the human rights memorial named the “Spiral of Injustice” with the same flyer attached. The sculpture itself features the words “language,” “avoidance,” “discrimination,” “violence” and “persecution,” wrapped around a figure.  

“These stickers were plastered throughout the Memorial yesterday,” the human rights center shared on Facebook on Wednesday. “I fear for what is happening to our community. 

“The Idaho Anne Frank Human Right Memorial was built as a physical statement of our shared values,” the center also shared. “One of those values includes standing up to confront hate.”

Dan Prinzing, the executive director of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, told The Hill that the incident marks “a really sad day for us.” He called the memorial “the heart” of Boise and said the organization is questioning why “hate has become emboldened.” 

Prinzing said police in Boise are investigating the incident, although it is not being considered a hate crime as of Wednesday. 

The memorial, which opened in 2002, “inspires people of all ages to contemplate the moral implications of their actions and the scope of their civic responsibilities,” according to the Wassmuth Center for Human Right’s website.

A report released by the Anti-Defamation League earlier this year found that Semitic incidents in the U.S. in 2019 occurred at their highest rate in at least four decades, with a record 2,100 incidents of assault, vandalism and more reported across the country.

Updated at 2:21 p.m.