The Deportation Monument on the Putlitz Bridge in Berlin, a Holocaust memorial for Jews sent to concentration and death camps, was vandalized on Tuesday evening in the latest defacement of the site.
The memorial for Berlin Jews deported from the Moabit station during the Shoah was defaced with several graffiti tags, according to the Berlin Police.
The Department for Research and Information on Antisemitism Berlin (RIAS Berlin) told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that it considers the vandalization of remembrance sites, such as the case of the deportation memorial, to be “targeted antisemitic property damage.”
“Such incidents are directed against the memorial sites themselves but also deliberately disrupt the commemoration and remembrance of the victims of the Shoah,” RIAS Berlin said.
The memorial for the 32,000 deported Jews has faced repeated vandalism since its creation, with it being splashed with white paint and covered in parcel tape in August. In November 2024, Berlin Police said a memorial wreath laid at the site was thrown over the railway railing, and candles were destroyed. The memorial was damaged by a bomb in 1992 and restored the following year, according to the Center for Jewish Art.
The deportation memorial’s defacement is also the latest in a series of recent antisemitic vandalism incidents in the German city.
Berlin faces a series of antisemitic graffiti incidents
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was discovered vandalized last Tuesday morning, according to the Berlin Police and the German Holocaust Memorial’s caretaking organization.
A stele at the Berlin memorial was discovered covered in green graffiti containing “inflammatory content.”
On April 26, in the Berlin-Pankow borough, several instances of antisemitic graffiti on apartment buildings were discovered, according to Berlin Police.
“Kill all Jews” was painted on one wall, according to a photograph published by Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor. According to Judische Allgemeine, Jewish community members also saw a graffiti swastika and the statement “Only a dead Jew is a good Jew.”
RIAS Berlin, which is publishing its annual report on antisemitic incidents next Wednesday, said that, in 2024, there were 89 registered incidents at memorial sites, and in 2025, there were 61.
Mathilda Heller contributed to this report.