Photos of Holocaust survivors exhibited on a central Vienna street have been defaced with swastikas, drawing condemnation from political and Jewish leaders.
Broadcaster ORF reported that ESRA, a group that brought the work by German-Italian photographer Luigi Toscano to the Austrian capital, said several photos were daubed with swastikas and other graffiti.
The exhibition opened on part of the Ringstrasse, a busy road that runs around central Vienna, and the group said some portraits were previously damaged with knives.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz tweeted that he was “dismayed by the antisemitic defilement” of the photos and called for a thorough investigation.
The leader of Austria’s Jewish community, Oskar Deutsch, said that “it is an antisemitic attack on all of Austria” and that police are investigating.
Austria has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years, as well as a surge in support for the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which became the junior partner in Kurz’s government after elections in 2017.
The head of the FPOe, which was founded in the 1950s by former Nazis, resigned after a hidden camera sting showed him promising public contracts in return for campaign help from a fake Russian backer, a development welcomed by the head of Austria’s Jewish community.
