Anne Frank Memorial In Idaho Vandalized With Swastika Stickers

The Anne Frank Memorial in Boise, Idaho, which is the only one in the U.S., was vandalized with swastika stickers Tuesday.

The Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, the organization which maintains the memorial, shared pictures of the blatant display of hate. In the pictures shared on Facebook, the statue of Anne Frank appears to have been defaced with stickers showing the Nazi insignia accompanied by the words, "We are everywhere."

The Boise Police Department announced that it is checking its surveillance footage as part of the investigation, reported NPR.

The Wassmuth Center for Human Rights houses a life-sized bronze statue of Anne Frank. It depicts her holding a diary while peering out the window of the secret annex on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, where she and her family spent over 2 years hiding from the Nazis during World War II before they were discovered in 1944 and sent to concentration camps.

A total of nine stickers were stuck throughout the memorial. Among them, one was placed on Frank's diary, while another was pasted on a statue next to the memorial that depicted the "spiral of injustice," reported Associated Press. The said statue illustrates how hateful language can lead to violence against minority groups.

Another sticker was pasted on the photo of Bill Wassmuth, a philanthropic Catholic priest from Northern Idaho after whom the organization is named.

"What makes this event actually so sad was the blatancy where they were placed, how they were placed and the message they were proclaiming," Dan Prinzing, the executive director of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, told the publication.

The Wassmuth Center was founded in 1996, aiming to construct a memorial to human rights, according to its website. The Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, which is surrounded by an educational park echoing Frank's ideals, opened to visitors in 2002.

Anne Frank, a German-Dutch girl of Jewish origin, gained fame posthumously when her diary, which chronicled the days she spent in hiding from the Nazis, was published as "The Diary of a Young Girl."

Frank's memorial was vandalized before the celebration of Hanukkah, a Jewish festival that began Thursday.

"I think what we’re seeing, we have to take seriously — such acts aren’t just random," Prinzing told the Associated Press. "In the sticker, they are proclaiming that they are everywhere. We have to remind people that good people are everywhere, that good exists, and now is the time for good to come together."