The childhood home of Elie Wiesel, in the Romanian city of Sighetu Marmatiei. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

In the wake of this past weekend’s vandalism incident at the childhood home of the late Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in Romania, there has been an outpouring of solidarity from across the globe, the curator of the museum at the site told The Algemeiner on Wednesday.

Alina Marincean said the incident — in which antisemitic graffiti was scrawled on the home — came as a surprise to both museum staff members and local residents in the city of Sighetu Marmatiei, located in northwestern Romania near the border with Ukraine.

“Nothing of this sort ever happened to us and we are organizing yearly public events with a great impact on the local and regional community,” she noted.

Following the discovery of the graffiti on Saturday, Marincean recalled, “I spent the whole next day responding to emails and answering calls from friends, visitors, people I know from around the world from Finland to South America, Israel and the US, people who expressed their concern and also support.”

“There were also visits at the museum from politicians and intellectuals from Romania who wanted to point out the importance of this place that keeps Elie Wiesel’s work and memory alive, as well as the memory of all those 38,000 Jews who never returned to their homes after May 1944,” she added.

Police launched an investigation into the incident, and Romanian media outlets reported on Wednesday that a suspect — a 37-year-old man from the city of Ramnicu Valcea — had been identified and detained.

In an interview with The Algemeiner on Sunday, Wiesel’s only child, Elisha Wiesel, said the vandalism of his father’s home was proof that “Holocaust memory and Jews are under attack” in Europe.