A community theatre company in Melbourne has hit out at vandals for spray painting a swastika on a billboard promoting its production of The Diary of Anne Frank.
Peridot Theatre Company, based in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverly, posted to its Facebook page early Sunday morning to say it was “UPSET, ANGRY [and] DISGUSTED” by the incident.
The graffiti, which the company has since cleaned, was sprayed less than 24 hours before opening night.
“This action is sickening,” the company wrote.
“Anne wrote: ‘I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.’
“We are honoured to tell Anne's story. We say NO to hate.”
The Diary of Anne Frank is a book of writings from Anne Frank, one of the most well-known Jewish victims of the Holocaust, while hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Peridot said it received support from the local community after posting about the incident, and Sunday afternoon’s matinee performance “was virtually sold out”.
“The despicable vandalism just underlines the fact that stories such as Anne Frank's still need telling.”
It comes months after posters of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg were defaced with anti-Semitic symbols in the same area.
Hitler moustaches, devil horns and the words "right wing facist (sic)" were spotted on posters of Mr Frydenberg, who is Jewish, in his Melbourne electorate of Kooyong two weeks before May’s federal election.
