Two German tourists in Miami Beach were arrested on Monday afternoon after police spotted them vandalizing a rainbow bench with a swastika and the words, “Adolf was here.”
Gunther Jekschtat, 62, and Christoph Rehak, 58, were taken into custody and charged with criminal mischief. As of Tuesday night, Jekschtat remained at Metro West Detention Center in Dade County, while Rehak was released on bond and fled from news cameras staked out at the facility.
The bench, just off Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, was installed in April as part of the city’s answer to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) demolition of a rainbow crosswalk near the site. Pavers from the crosswalk were reinstalled in Lummus Park – where the bench is also located – and dedicated in April during Pride weekend in the popular gay destination.
Surveillance cameras revealed a group of four men walking toward the bench and milling around it. One of the suspects reaches into his fanny pack and appears to hand what turned out to be a large Sharpie used to write the message to another tourist.
According to the arrest report, Rehak drew the swastika while Jekschtat provided cover. Both men told officers they thought it was a joke, 7News Miami reported.
The Nazi regime arrested an estimated 100,000 men under Paragraph 175, the statute that criminalized homosexuality in Germany and occupied countries in the years leading up to and during World War II. 15,000 LGBTQ+ people were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.
“Though they thought it was a joke, the joke’s on them, because they are behind bars,” said Miami Beach Police spokesperson Christopher Bess, who called the vandalism an “egregious act of hate.”
While the current charge is a misdemeanor, the State Attorney’s Office said it could be enhanced to a hate crime.
Out Miami Beach Commissioner Joe Magazine donated the rainbow bench that was vandalized.
“When people do things like this, they want people to be fearful. We are not,” Magazine said.
“It wasn’t just a bench. We came together as a community and out of a show of unity, out of a show of love, out of a show of welcomeness,” he said. “We’re not fearful of anything. We will stand up against any type of hatred.”
The German Consul General in Miami weighed in on his compatriots’ Nazi-inspired “joke.”
“We were shocked to learn about reports that a bench in Miami Beach’s Lummus Park was defaced with Nazi symbols,” Consul General Christopher Burger posted to Instagram. “Under German law the use of such symbols, like the swastika, is a criminal offense. We have reached out to city leadership and leaders in the Jewish community to offer our support — first of all in repairing the damage, but also to reassure the community that we have zero tolerance for antisemitism and acts of hate.”
Inexplicably, Burger’s message does not mention the LGBTQ+ community, at whom the vandalism was directed.
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tier story. Very shameful.
