Neo-nazi group urinates on the Shoah Memorial in Rhodes – a video (Updated 25/8)

Hi, we are a secret group of students of the «Venetoklio» High School of Rhodes, that does not digg at all the Jews who wish to turn the island (of Rhodes) into a second «Land of Canaan». After all the propaganda fed even in Religion school books, over the «chosen people» and other bullshit, we have decided to take the situation into our own hands and show to everyone with deeds of how much do we really agree with this view. There follows a video with the appropriate music soundtrack from a song we found on the Internet and we loved it. We hope you’ll love both the video and the song, as much as we loved them.Auf Wiedersehen!

ΓΕΙΑ ΣΑΣ, ΕΙΜΑΣΤΕ ΜΙΑ ΜΥΣΤΙΚΗ ΟΜΑΔΑ ΜΑΘΗΤΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΒΕΝΕΤΟΚΛΕΙΟΥ ΛΥΚΕΙΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΡΟΔΟΥ, ΠΟΥ ΔΕ ΓΟΥΣΤΑΡΟΥΜΕ ΚΑΘΟΛΟΥ ΤΟΥΣ ΕΒΡΑΙΟΥΣ ΠΟΥ ΘΕΛΟΥΝΕ ΝΑ ΚΑΝΟΥΝ ΤΟ ΝΗΣΙ ΜΙΑ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΗ «ΓΗ ΤΗΣ ΧΑΝΑΑΝ». ΥΣΤΕΡΑ ΑΠΟ ΟΛΗ ΤΗΝ ΠΡΟΠΑΓΑΝΔΑ ΠΟΥ ΤΡΩΜΕ ΑΚΟΜΑ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΑ ΣΧΟΛΙΚΑ ΒΙΒΛΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΘΡΗΣΚΕΥΤΙΚΩΝ, ΠΕΡΙ «ΠΕΡΙΟΥΣΙΟΥ ΛΑΟΥ» ΚΑΙ ΛΟΙΠΕΣ ΠΙΠΕΣ, ΑΠΟΦΑΣΙΣΑΜΕ ΝΑ ΠΑΡΟΥΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΤΑΣΤΑΣΗ ΣΤΑ ΧΕΡΙΑ ΜΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΝΑ ΔΕΙΞΟΥΜΕ ΣΕ ΟΛΟΥΣ ΜΕ ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΠΟΣΟ ΠΟΛΥ ΣΥΜΦΩΝΟΥΜΕ ΜΕ ΑΥΤΗ ΤΗΝ ΑΠΟΨΗ. ΑΚΟΛΟΥΘΕΙ ΤΟ ΒΙΝΤΕΟ ΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΤΑΛΛΗΛΗ ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ ΥΠΟΚΡΟΥΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΕΝΑ ΤΡΑΓΟΥΔΑΚΙ ΠΟΥ ΒΡΗΚΑΜΕ ΣΤΟ ΙΝΤΕΡΝΕΤ ΚΑΙ ΜΑΣ ΑΡΕΣΕ ΠΑΡΑ ΠΟΛΥ. ΕΛΠΙΖΟΥΜΕ ΝΑ ΣΑΣ ΑΡΕΣΕΙ ΑΥΤΟ ΚΑΙ ΤΟ ΒΙΝΤΕΟ, ΟΠΩΣ ΑΡΕΣΑΝ ΚΑΙ ΣΕ ΕΜΑΣ! Auf Wiedersehen!

the manifesto of the «Antisemitic Nucleus of Venetokleio Rhodes»

In this video we can see a self proclaimed antisemitic, neo-nazi group of students (of the «Venetokleio» High-School of Rhodes) which urinates on the Memorial of the Holocaust/Shoah which commemorates the extermination in nazi death camps of 1.522 Jews from Rhodes out of a total of 1.673 which were deported. Today only 30 – 40 Jews still live in Rhodes although there is a big community of Rhodian Jews (Rhodesli) in the USA which often travels to the island.

The names of those exterminated in Auschwitz and other camps can be found here so that we all understand that it isn’t numbers or an abstractive «history» that these antisemitic idiots urinate upon – it is people in flesh and blood which were either shot, beaten to death, ripped apart by dogs, exterminated in gas chambers or died during medical experiments.

This monument inaugurated in June 23rd 2002 is one of the Holocaust Monuments which has suffered most in Greece :
During it’s construction the workers protested of being harassed by bystanders with phrases like «Get out Jews», “You’ll turn us all into Jews” and “You’ll bring Sharon here” and even hurled stones – a 24/7 police protection was needed to complete the works! But this didn’t stop barbaric individuals to begin immediately destroying the monument. During a period of 3 days, (starting the night of 30/6/2002 and finishing by morning of 3/7/2002) the Monument was being destroyed by people who erased the engraved lettering, cut the barbed wire which was part of the monument and knocked it off base – the Monument was destroyed. Local newspaper Proodos called it «unprecedented vandalism» and said that «the vandalism did not represent the people of Rhodes» but a spokesman from the Jewish Community of Rhodes claimed that local people showed no respect by sitting on it, eating and leaving leftovers on the Monument. After the destruction of the Monument the Community of Rhodes applied to the Archaeological Service for permission to built a bulletproof glass and protective railing around the Monument. I would like to highlight that these facts became known only thanks to the Greek Helsinki Monitor NGO – their report on 2002, one of the worst years concerning greek antisemitism with incidents in Athens, Thessaloniki, Rhodes and Ioannina can be found here.

Local newspaper Proodos also reported that the mayor of Rhodes Y.Giannopoulos received a letter by the leader of far-right, populist party of LAOS Y.Karatzaferis who objected to the building of the monument.

What do you want me to say? One can ask what threat can a bunch of school kids pose? In theory a small one but the systematic antisemitic violence which surrounded the inauguration in 2002 and nazi glorification in the stadiums should act as a warning that we have a problem here. The fact that they are so proud of themselves, that they openly praise nazi Germany which destroyed not only Greek Judaism but also enslaved our homeland, that they deliberately choose to specify that they are an antisemitic nucleus targeting Jews are facts deeply worrying.  What stops them from throwing a molotov coktail next time? So, although I know that it is unpleasant to think of 18 year olds becoming a physical threat and everybody wanting to attribute everything to «silliness» please remember the physical violence the workers faced during construction and the subsequent orgy of destruction latter; also that these kids are neo nazis and in this age they are often a tool in the hands of much more violent persons.

Also let’s not forget that there is a long standing tradition in Rhodes in soccer games of opponents being targeted as Jews and subsequent neo-nazi anthems. Examples include «The Holocaust was just the beginning – Sons of whores assholes Jews» – «Το Ολοκαύτωμα ήταν μόνο η αρχή – Πουτάνας γιοί Μαλάκες Οβριοί». (I must point out that there have been cases where the local Police has done it’s duty and forbade these posters – in other times it has failed to do so).

antisemitism in Rhodes's soccer fans

Rhodes is a small place and the identity of these persons, who are proud to hate Jews and declare that «it’s a pity that Hitler didn’t slaughter them all» and «We are not fascists but Hitler was the only one to teach Jews a good lesson» is easy to find. I would like to ask that these people be found and forced to spend the summer  working in the Yad-Vashem and writing a paper on the Jews of their city and the Shoah – I doubt if this actually will help these people but I haven’t heard of a better solution yet. I would also like to remind that  acts such as vilifying monuments like the Shoah Monument or the Monument to the Unknown Soldier are punishable by law and these individuals claim to be 18, thus adults and punishable; but let me repeat that I do not advocate such a solution, but only the aforementioned above. Also the Venetokleio High School should consider permanently hosting a series of activities aimed in combating racism and antisemitism.

The protagonists:

The Jewish Community of Rhodes. (map showing Jewish neighbourhood in Rhodes – La Juderia)
Photos & News from the Rhodes Community in the KIS website.
The Jewish Museum of Rhodes, the Jews of Rhodes in the USA
The history of the Jews of Rhodes in Chronica, the publication of the Central Board of Jewish Communities.

The Venetokleio High School of Rhodes – one of the historic high-schools of the Dodecanese, the perpetrators claim to have formed their neo-nazi group there.

The «Antisemitic Nucleus of Venetokleio Rhodes» – site and youtube channel.

Update 25/08/08:

1. Local newspaper «Rodiaki» wrote an article about it which expresses it’s disgust with this action – I’m glad that they understand that this hate is against Rhodes itself and not only the Rhodian Jews
2. Jewish (1, 2) and Israeli (1, 2) media have also picked up the story.
3. A greek blog, Grep Alt, makes a comment on the responsibilities of the mainstream media who continually glorify personalities of dubious moral standing.