A Danish police officer said the force was investigating reports of damage at a Jewish cemetery in the center of the country and considering a possible antisemitic motive.

Damage was discovered at the small Jewish cemetery in Randers on Nov. 9, the anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogroms in Germany in 1938, the DR broadcaster reported on Monday. The report did not say when the damage was caused.

No graffiti or political slogans were found on site, but several headstones were toppled and some damaged, the report said.

Five years ago, two men with ties to a neo-Nazi group were convicted of extensive vandalism at the same cemetery.

“We are at a point in the investigation where we do not rule anything out,” Police Inspector Anders Uhrskov from East Jutland Police told DR. While Uhrskov did not mention the Kristallnacht anniversary, he did note an increase in antisemitic incidents, “and therefore there are of course relevant avenues to look at,” he told DR.

The Embassy of Israel in Copenhagen indicated it considers the incident an act of vandalism whose timing “is especially alarming,” it said on X. “Attacks on Jewish heritage sites should not be tolerated, and we should all work together to fight antisemitism, wherever it takes place.”

In 2012, the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental body that is not part of the European Union, adopted a nonbinding resolution placing responsibility for the care of Jewish cemeteries on national governments. The resolution was based in part on a report that said Jewish cemeteries are “probably” more vulnerable than other cemeteries.

In addition to frequent vandalism, including for antisemitic reasons, at Jewish cemeteries, the report also noted instances of cemeteries, especially in Eastern Europe, that have been turned into “residential areas, public gardens, leisure parks, army grounds and storage sites; some have been turned into lakes.”

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