A house in Lochem (Gelderland) where a Jewish family lived until they were deported to death camps by the Nazis has been vandalised and sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti.

The door of the house, at Walderstraat 12, was kicked in late on Friday night and the word ‘Jew’ and a star of David daubed on the wall. The house had recently become part of the Stolpersteine project, which commemorates the Jews who used to live in a property by placing small metal bricks with their names, deportation date, and the date and place of death in the pavement.

‘Whoever did this is crazy,’ a spokesman for the Stolpersteine (stumble stone) association in Lochem told local broadcaster Omroep Gelderland. ‘I hope the police catch them and that they will face trial. I’m just sorry for the people who live in the house now.’

The spokesman said that it is the second time the house had been vandalised since the stones were placed at the address in September. ‘Someone carved a star of David in the wood and the word ‘Jew’ with a nail. I think it is probably the same person.’

The association plans to place five more stones on December 14 and in 2023 another 43.

Mayor Sebastiaan van ’t Erve said what happened is ‘an unacceptable hate crime’. ‘I hope the perpetrator is found and made an example of. We do not tolerate anti-Semitism in Lochem,’  he said.