More than 100 Jewish graves in France were defaced with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffit — now officials are announcing plans to combat future hate crimes.



On Tuesday, 107 graves located in a Jewish cemetery in Westhoffen were discovered with hateful graffiti spray-painted on them. The incident follows a wave of anti-Semitic acts afflicting France's northeastern Alsace region, which borders Germany. Officials have reported more than 50 incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism in that region this year, according to The New York Times, including nearly 100 gravestones desecrated at a nearby cemetery in February.

After visiting the site on Wednesday and calling it a “heinous act of anti-Semitism,” French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced that an investigation had been launched and that an “official office to combat hate” had been created.



"I want to say to those who think they can come here in the middle of the night and tarnish the memory of those who are buried here. Tarnish the memory of our French republic ... I want to tell them that we will not leave them alone and our means will be mobilized to follow up and act on this," he said.



French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the defacement in a tweet on Tuesday night.



“Jews are and make France. Those who attack them, even in their graves, are not worthy of the idea we have of France,” he said. “Anti-Semitism is a crime and we will fight it, in Westhoffen, and everywhere, until our dead can sleep in peace."



France is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe at around 550,000 people. But anti-Semitic attacks in the country are on the rise, with over 500 taking place in 2018 alone — that’s up 74% from 311 in 2017.