Swastikas daubed on former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt's grave
The grave of former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt has had swastikas daubed on it in the Hamburg cemetery where he lies buried, police in the northern city said on Saturday.
The vandalism was done on Friday evening, a day before Schmidt, who died in 2015, would have celebrated his 105th birthday. The perpetrators remain unknown, and the swastikas have been cleaned off, according to the police report.
Schmidt served as chancellor between 1974 and 1982. He made a name for himself as police senator in Hamburg at the time of the 1962 flooding that devastated the city.
He served as an anti-aircraft officer in the German army during World War II, being awarded the Iron Cross for his service during the Wehrmacht's siege of then Leningrad, now St Petersburg, during the war.
