Feb. 5 (UPI) — A group of New York commuters removed anti-Semitic graffiti and Nazi swastikas from a subway car.
Gregory Locke, 27, an attorney from Harlem, noticed the defacing Saturday evening on an uptown train on the city’s 1 line at 50th Street.
Locke told NBC News that he and his fellow passengers noticed the graffiti on every window, door and advertising display. Slogans included “Destroy Israel, Heil Hitler,” and “Jews belong in the oven,” an apparent reference to the Holocaust.
“The train was silent as everyone stared at each other, uncomfortable and unsure what to do,” Locke said in a Facebook post. “One guy got up and said, ‘Hand sanitizer gets rid of Sharpie. We need alcohol.’ He found some tissues and got to work.”
They quickly removed the messages.
“I’ve never seen so many people simultaneously reach into their bags and pockets looking for tissues and Purell. Within about 2 minutes all the Nazi symbolism was gone,” Locke added.
Locke wrote on Facebook that one passenger said, “I guess this is Trump’s America.” Locke added: “No sir, it’s not. Not tonight and not ever. Not as long as stubborn New Yorkers have anything to say about it.”
New York City police have reported a spike in hate crimes after last year’s presidential election won by Donald Trump on Nov 8. Ten days later, 13 swastikas were reported in the city.
Three days after the election, volunteers hiked to the top of Mount Tom in a state park in Easthampton, Mass., and removed racist and anti-Semitic graffiti with only hand tools.
On Saturday, Chicago police released a surveillance video of a man smashing the front window of a synagogue and placing swastikas on the front door.
On Friday in Houston, campus police at Rice University reported swastika vandalism on the school’s William Marsh Rice statue.
Anti-Semitic graffiti, including a swastika and the words “Heil Trump,” were placed on a bus stop at the University of California at San Diego a week after the election.
Last week, the White House’s statements on International Holocaust Remembrance Day failed to mention the millions of Jews murdered in the genocide. White House press secretary Sean Spicer claimed it was written by “someone who is both Jewish and the descendent of Holocaust survivors.”
