ATHENS – US Ambassador George Tsunis condemned the vandalism of the monument at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki commemorating the Jewish cemetery the Nazis destroyed in 1942 as ‘abhorrent and disgraceful’.

“This unconscionable act desecrates the lives and precious memory of the 50,0000 Jews from Thessaloniki the Nazis murdered during the Holocaust,” Tsunis said on a social media post, speaking on behalf of the embassy, the consulate general in Thessaloniki and the American people.

Expressing his support of the Jewish community and people of Greece against such acts of hatred and intolerance, the American ambassador noted, “In this birthplace of democracy, we have a sacred obligation to defend the democratic values that unite our peoples, to preserve the memory of the Holocaust, and remain forever vigilant in our flight against anti-semitism and crimes of hate.”