ILLUSTRATIVE: Protesters demonstrate in front of the Reichstag during a rally against government restrictions related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 29, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Christian Mang.

Police in Germany have launched an investigation into a three-foot high piece of pandemic-related antisemitic graffiti daubed on the wall of a university hospital in the northeastern city of Greifswald.

Witnesses reported seeing the offending slogan — “The Jew is Unvaccinated!” — early on Saturday morning, as residents began celebrations for the Christmas holiday.

In their attempts to win public sympathy, many anti-vaccination activists in Germany and other countries have analogized the social restrictions placed on individuals refusing the vaccines with the plight of Jews racially persecuted by the former Nazi regime.

According to DIA — an antisemitism monitoring group in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern where Greifswald is located — there were at least two antisemitic incidents in the area during the previous week, again connected to protests against COVID-19 public health measures.

In a thread on Twitter, the same group noted that while the graffiti at the hospital was likely intended to depict those who refuse the vaccine as the 21st century equivalent of Jews in Nazi Germany, the slogan could also be interpreted another way.

“The graffiti can also be understood as a reference to an antisemitic conspiracy myth, according to which Jews are responsible for the pandemic and use vaccination as a ‘weapon’ against the rest of the population,” the group observed.

Protests in Germany against the pandemic measures have often mixed appropriation of language and symbols associated with the Holocaust with crude antisemitic rhetoric.

And one of the most vocal of Germany’s pandemic conspiracy theorists — former microbiology professor Sucharit Bhakdi — posted a political campaign video in July 2021 which openly and crudely attacked Jews.

“That’s the bad thing about Jews: They learn well. There is no people that learns better than they do. But they have now learned the evil — and implemented it,” Bhakdi said.