Holocaust memorial statues destroyed at Tulsa Jewish art museum

The Tulsa Police Department is looking for two young suspects who allegedly destroyed several statues dedicated to Jewish children killed during the Holocaust.

Law enforcement said they were contacted on Wednesday about the vandalism at The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art.

In an outdoor display, the museum had erected five Holocaust tribute statues. Each design was filled with 2,000 rocks bearing the individual names of Jewish children killed by the Nazi regime during World War II.

Surveillance video showed two young men bending the metal statues and knocking them down. According to police, they attempted to steal them but were unsuccessful.

The museum said the suspects caused more than $15,000 in damage.

“You come out and your car’s been egged, that’s not great,” said Lt. William White in a video. “But when you have statues dedicated to the children that lost their lives in one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humankind, obviously there’s a different tier there. So we’re taking this very seriously and we really want to catch these people.”

The museum thanked community members “for the overwhelming support and sharing the importance of what these statues symbolized.”

This isn’t the first incident of anti-Semitic vandalism reported in recent months.

Earlier this month, a Washington state synagogue was vandalized with spray-painted swastikas and damage to a Holocaust memorial.

The Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise, Idaho, was also targeted in December with swastika flyers reading “we are everywhere.”

A report released by the Anti-Defamation League last year found that anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. in 2019 occurred at their highest rate in at least four decades, with a record 2,100 incidents of assault, vandalism and more reported across the country.