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Swastika and "Auschwitz Welcome" Found at LA Bus Stop

Graffiti of a swastika and the words “Auschwitz Welcome” were found on the window of a Los Angeles bus stop on January 11.

The Jewish advocacy group Stop Antisemitism first exposed the vandalism, tweeting out a photo of the graffiti, stating that it was found on the corner of Vineland Avenue and Ventura Boulevard. “This vile hatred must never be tolerated in your city,” Stop Antisemitism tweeted to Mayor Karen Bass.

The next day, Los Angeles councilmember Nithya Raman announced the graffiti was cleaned up.

Other Jewish groups also condemned the graffiti including AJC and the Simon Wiesenthal Center .

“This vile graffiti is an unsettling reminder that anti-Jewish hate is the fastest growing category of hate crimes in America,” American Jewish Committee Los Angeles Assistant Director Odin Ozdil said in a statement to the Journal. “No community should have to be confronted with threats to their existence, especially those that evoke such horrific trauma as the Holocaust. We encourage local authorities to be unrelenting in their pursuit and prosecution of the perpetrator of this hateful act.”

“[The] Jewish community needs the help and empathy from our non-Jewish neighbors if we are to push back on the distressing anti-Semitism on our streets and on social media,” Simon Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda Rabbi Abraham Cooper similarly said in a statement to the Journal. “Perpetrators don’t worry that a shrinking police presence would detect such hate.”