Note: The following story contains racist and offensive language. Discrection is advised.
Allan Schwarz opens the door to his property in
Bowmanville and immediately starts sobbing. His wife,
Marion
, walks behind him and as she scans the room, she travels back in time, all the way to Nazi Germany in the 30s. The Jewish couple lost family members in the concentration camps that marked one of history's darkest periods, and now the memories are flooding back. Together they stare at a giant swastika spray painted on the wall, overwhelmed with fury and disbelief.
Their home, which they've owned for 15 years and had been renting out to the same man for the last 10, has been virtually destroyed. Drywall has been torn from the ceiling and holes litter the walls. But it's the symbols of hate and intolerance that are most damaging. Anti-Semitic scrawls of 'kike' and 'white power' are everywhere.
"The symbols to me meant the family I lost in Nazi Germany,"
Marion
says. "And the thought that somebody would do this."
"Every time we come in here and I see that symbol and the 'white power' and 'f**k Jews'. And the damage. Look at the damage that's been done here. For what reason?" her husband adds with an incredulous expression.
The man who had been renting the house recently began having problems paying the rent. After numerous cheques bounced, the Schwarz's began the process of evicting him. When they arrived at the home Tuesday to change the locks, the tenant was gone and they discovered the state of the property.
They were also perturbed to learn that the incident was being treated as a simple case of mischief, rather than the far more serious offence of a hate crime.
"For a hate crime, you need more components to be brought in," explains Sgt. Paul McCurbin of York Regional Police.
But to the Schwarz's, hate is all they see when look around their destroyed property.
"What else would it be when you have sayings like 'kike,'" demands Marion. "Is that not a hate crime?"