(Jewish Group) Spanish town previously named Fort Kill the Jews vandalized with antisemitic graffiti

[Behind the Aegis]

Spanish town previously named Fort Kill the Jews vandalized with antisemitic graffiti as Jewish family reportedly plans to move in


A sign in Castrillo Mota de Judíos, Spain, was found vandalized with antisemitic spray paint, Aug. 3, 2022. (Courtesy of Lorenzo Rodriguez)

A tiny village in northern Spain that from 1627 until 2015 was named Fort Kill the Jews was hit with antisemitic graffiti on Wednesday, and its mayor said he believes neo-Nazi groups carried out the vandalism because they had heard a Jewish family was moving back into the town.

As reported by the El País daily, the family will soon join another Jewish one that moved to the town earlier this year — the first to do so since medieval times.

Originally named Castrillo Motajudíos, or Jew’s Hill Fort, in 1035 when Jews fleeing from a neighboring pogrom settled there, the town was renamed Castrillo Matajudíos — Fort Kill The Jews — in 1627, during a period of extreme religious persecution carried out by the Inquisition.

Vandals spray painted the word Auschwitz, the name of the infamous former Nazi camp, onto one of the village’s signs with its restored current name. They also wrote the Fort Kill the Jews name onto a signpost that leads into the town. Several garbage containers throughout the village were lit on fire.

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