Jewish cemetery cleaned of Nazi symbols

Poland's chief rabbi and a town mayor joined students cleaning gravestones Tuesday at a Jewish cemetery that vandals had desecrated with Nazi symbols.

Rabbi Michael Schudrich said that he and Tadeusz Wrona, mayor of the southern city of Czestochowa, joined about 20 Polish art students who spent two hours scrubbing black paint off some of 100 gravestones at the city's Jewish cemetery.

Police discovered Sunday that the letters SS, swastikas, and the slogan ''Jews Out'' were written on the gravetones in German. They are still searching for the culprits.

''The fact is, there is anti-Semitism everywhere. But what is also important is the reaction of the rest of society,'' Schudrich said. ''Too often the rest of society tolerates these things. But in this case, the mayor and the young people didn't sit at home and wait for someone else to come clean it up. They came out and made a physical - not just verbal - reaction.''

The group donned gloves and used strong chemicals to remove the oil-based paint. Due to the difficulty of removing the paint, and the risk of damaging inscriptions with the chemical, the efforts would have to be continued by professional cleaners, Schudrich said.

Poland was home to about 3.5 million Jews - Europe's largest Jewish community - until World War II, when most were killed by Nazi Germany. Today there are an estimated 30,000 Jews living in this predominantly Catholic country.

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Griffin fails again to quash BNP yob tendency

The BNP tries hard to project respectability. BNP canvassers are told to dress smartly and be polite, to remove themselves as far as possible from the party's thuggish image. They claim to be ordinary hardworking family men and women.

On the morning of Sunday 29 April two teams gathered outside Epping station. One was a group of local anti-fascists preparing to deliver leaflets in wards in which BNP candidates were standing. The other was from the BNP.

One of the BNP members held a video camera. Her brown trouser suit could perhaps pass as smart. But inside, bursting to get out, was the worst type of hate-filled nazi yob that Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, claims is no longer what BNP members, let alone council election candidates, are like.

Leni Riefenstahl she ain't. Her film, despite its appalling out-of-focus and very shaky camerawork, including shots of the ground, quickly appeared on a nazi website under the imprint of Covert Undercover Nuisance Tactics (pathetic!). An added soundtrack included such choice lines as "I'm an a***hole, I'm a f***ing w****r", and other similar expressions, reflecting the musical taste and self esteem of the film's creator.

We somehow doubt whether Griffin will hire her to make the official party film of the next BNP Red White and Blue festival.

We understand that Transport for London are reviewing CCTV footage from outside Epping station because of her pushy behaviour which caused concern among passengers.

After she had finished shooting her footage, the BNP supporters left Epping station on a high, fuelled up to distribute their leaflets of lies and try and con some people to vote for them. The anti-fascists delivered the Hope not Hate leaflet in Epping. This was extremely well received by residents, several of whom came out to talk to the leafleters or made contact later. One man even dropped what he was doing and joined the leafleting team for the rest of the afternoon.

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