Residents near Dollis Hill station in Brent reacted quickly when Nazi graffiti appeared on their street. The community came together and set to work to clean off the graffiti and were helped by a local councillor. Worryingly some of the graffiti appeared to be outside the homes of Jewish families.
Lucy Cox, who discovered the graffiti, said:
I'm horrified to see my Jewish neighbours targeted in this way. Anti-semitism is real on the far right and we won't tolerate it in Dollis Hill.
We will be holding a vigil in solidarity on Tuesday evening at 7pm at the bus stop on Hamilton Road. (Near Dollis Hill tube). I hope lots of local people can join us to show our community is united against hate
Sadly there has been anti-semitism in the area in the past when a memorial in Gladstone Park to prisoners of war and concentration camp victims by Fred Kormis was vandalised in 2003. This too led to a counter demonstration opposing racism and anti-semitism. The memorial now has Grade 2 listed status.
I was on the demonstration to protest against the Nazi desecration of the Holocaust memorial (was it 2003? I thought it was earlier), possibly and thankfully the only time there's needed to be a protest march though Gladstone Park. It was organised at short notice by local residents and trade unionists, with a very good turnout, which must have made an impression on the Nazis, as they never came back.
ReplyDeleteI think there were actually 2 episodes. One with paint daubling and then another when the heads were pulled off etc. I also remember going on a protest where Michael Rosen was present.
Deletehttp://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/heritage/grade-ii-listing-for-gladstone-park-sculpture-by-former-prisoner-of-war-from-kilburn-1-4390704
DeleteAnti-semitism is everywhere. I was on the tube last Saturday at about 9.30am when a man verbally abused me for being a stuck up Jewish princess. My transgression was not having joined in his drunken diatribe against the train being held for 5 minutes outside Harrow on the Hill Station which ended with a mad anti-semitic conspiracy theory. I didn't deny or confirm his assumptions.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Chaplin was often asked if he was of Gypsy or Jewish extraction and he always refused to answer saying that to deny belonging to a minority was to further stigmatise that minority.
A ranting anti-semitic conspiracy-theorist drunk at 9.30 in the morning?
ReplyDeleteBit early for Paaul Dacre surely?