300 vandalized tombstones: “People cried”

When Tuesday morning dawned over Solna, the neat cemetery was not the same. Some 300 gravestones had been toppled, about which Mitt i Solna reported for the first time.

– I myself was there yesterday and saw the devastation. It’s an incredibly sad sight, says Svante Borg, head of administration for the cemetery administration in Stockholm.

During Tuesday and Wednesday work has been done to restore the cemeteries, something that will take time. Vandalism is extensive.

– There is no pattern, creed or mark on the stones that can explain why they have been vandalized. We cannot see any common thread.

“Not unusual”

A woman who has a close relative buried in the cemetery says that she usually goes once a week to visit the grave. She wants to remain anonymous but tells TT how she felt to be greeted by a vandalized cemetery Wednesday morning.

– When you arrive, you are very shocked and affected. You react physically, I stood there shaking. Even people who had no relatives buried there stood up and cried, he says.

– It’s too good that nothing can be protected.

Also earlier this week, a similar incident occurred at the same location, when some thirty headstones were overturned.

Jan Olov Andersson, executive director of the Swedish Cemetery and Crematorium Association, says similar things happen from time to time.

“Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for this to happen, perhaps it has even increased in recent years,” he says, but emphasizes that he has no statistics.

Economic consequences

But he had never heard of widespread vandalism like that of the North Cemetery before.

– It is very sad that our cemeteries are not left alone, that we cannot have that respect.

Grave vandalism not only causes pain to those close to the deceased, it can also have financial consequences.

– The tombstone is the property of the individual. Sometimes it may be the case that the principal has some type of group liability insurance, but otherwise it will be the family members who will have to pay for the repair of the stone, says Jan Olov Andersson.

You ask yourself the same question over and over: Why?

– Who could do such a thing?

Dilemma

The Solna incident has been reported to the police and a security company has been hired to patrol the area at night. But Jan Olov Andersson says there is a dilemma in protecting and overly limiting cemeteries.

– Of course, you want it to be available for the public to visit the graves. But if he is not left alone, it will be the case that he has to close the door, he says.

Svante Borg and his colleagues have received many calls from concerned and upset people who have relatives buried in Solna during the day.

– As soon as something like this has happened, they contact us, everyone wonders if their graves have been affected. In this case, it was tomb blocks 17b and 17c, so everyone else can feel calm, he says.