Cimetière juif de Sarre-Union : les dégâts by dna_web
French authorities have detained five teenagers for desecrating about 250 gravestones in the Jewish cemetery in Sarre-Union in the Alsace region of eastern France near the German border and damaging a Holocaust memorial there.
Media reports say the youths ranged in age from 15 to 17 and had no previous criminal record. Four live in Sarre-Union and one lives in Luneville. Following widespread publicity about the desecration, one of the youths turned himself in to police Monday morning and gave the names of the other four, according to the local prosecutor.
The prosecutor said the devastation took place last Thursday afternoon; most of the affected headstones were toppled and some were defaced or otherwise damaged; the teens also tried to open some of the graves.
The desecration was discovered Sunday, and special investigators were sent to the scene.
See more details in our earlier post