Police confirmed that the graffiti was discovered Monday, a day before Latvia holds its nationwide Holocaust commemoration. The stone remains of the building, now overgrown with grass and weeds, were left standing as a memorial.
Police have no suspects.
Latvia and its Baltic Sea neighbors, Estonia and Lithuania, were overrun by the Soviet Union, then Nazi Germany during World War II, and suffered mightily at the hands of both. After annexing the country in 1940, the Soviets deported thousands of Latvians to Siberia, where many were shot. The Nazis occupied Latvia from 1941 to 1944 and murdered nearly 80,000 Jews, with Latvians as well as Germans taking part in the killings. The Red Army returned in 1945, deporting thousands more and staying until the Baltic states won independence in 1991.