Breda, the Netherlands, June 26, 2020
Photo: bndestem.nl
The Polish community in the Dutch town of Breda is in shock after Black Lives Matter activists vandalized a beloved shrine to the famous Our Lady of Częstochowa Icon, defacing the icon itself and spray painting “BLM” underneath it.
Ironically, the self-styled racial justice activists targeted a beloved icon that is popularly and affectionately known as the “Black Madonna,” in a shrine erected in 1954 specifically in honor of the city’s 1944 liberation from German nazis at the hands of the Polish 1st Armored Division under General Stanisław Maczek, who was awarded honorary Dutch citizenship after the war.
Mayor Paul Depla said the incident was “particularly sad for the Polish community, for which the monument is of great value,” reports the Dutch newspaper BN DeStem.
“This is never justifiable,” he said.
A protest for racial justice was held in Breda last week, though organizers say they do not know who is responsible for the vandalism.
“This hurts the Polish community and that is not the intention [of the demonstration]. People are now open to dialogue, but with these kinds of actions you lose sympathy,” spokesman Patrick van Lunteren commented.
Frans Ruczyński, the son of one of the liberating soldiers and former chairman of the General Maczek Museum, which commemorates the city’s liberators, noted that, “Polish people are very religious. Every Sunday they go to church, with hundreds in Breda. Why would you want to hurt them? We don’t know if it comes from the left or right corner. But when it comes to Black Lives Matter, I don’t understand it. The Black Madonna has nothing to do with oppression at all.”
The original wonderworking Black Madonna Icon is housed at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, Poland.
As of June 23, the municipality had successfully cleaned all the graffiti from the shrine.
BLM rioters in Madison, Wisconsin also indiscriminately toppled and beheaded a statue to Col. Hans Christian Heg on Tuesday, a famous abolitionist who died fighting against the Confederacy. Democratic State Senator Tim Carpenter was also physically attacked for taking pictures of the rioters.
