CORNISH — Officials at the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park are hoping to sponsor a program or event in the coming year that helps the Upper Valley respond collectively to antisemitic vandalism that damaged a prominent monument this fall.

“Park staff are working with local stakeholders and Jewish families affected by the Holocaust to identify how we can also help restore our community. This vandalism not only impacted the sense of safety and belonging our Jewish neighbors feel within our community, but also was a painful reminder of past suffering and loss,” Rick Kendall, the superintendent of the Cornish-based park, said in a message published earlier this month in the Connect Cornish email network.

The vandalism, which was discovered on Oct. 1, defaced the funerary monument where sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and other family members are interred. The Temple monument was tagged with paint and antisemitic language and symbols, including swastikas and the words “Heil Hitler!”

Kendall said conservators “are making good progress on returning the monument to its original condition,” but that park officials want to help the community acknowledge the harm such antisemitic acts can cause. He noted that park officials learned that the vandalism likely occurred on the 80th anniversary of what is known as the Babi Yar massacre, when more than 33,000 Jewish residents of Kyiv, Ukraine, were rounded up and killed by Nazi troops at a ravine by the same name.

Whether or not the timing of the vandalism was coincidental, Kendall said, it did more than just harm a “nationally significant monument at the park.”

He said members of the park staff are working with community residents to consider a program or event at the park next summer that can help “heal and strengthen our community.”

Cornish resident Judith Kaufman, whose grandfather’s uncle and many of his cousins were killed at the notorious massacre, said she was heartened by the park’s response.

“I’m very pleased that Rick Kendall sent such a caring and educational message. ... It seems that the Park Service is really serious about their concerns about hate crimes and their efforts to right a wrong that was harmful to their host community,” Kaufman said.

Grantham resident Paul Etkind, the president of the Hanover-based Upper Valley Jewish Community, said it was important both to speak out and to have a broader, communitywide response and that he was “thrilled” to see the park act.

“We regard it very seriously,” he said of the vandalism and hate speech at the site. “Our entire history as a people has been that if you don’t respond and don’t respond forcefully ... it easily becomes normalized. And it becomes easier for the next outrage and easier and easier after that.”

The vandalism remains under investigation by New Hampshire State Police. Lt. Michael Kokoski, the commander of the Keene-based Troop C, said the investigating trooper, Eric Fosterling, “has been in touch with the FBI as to any resources or assistance that may be appropriate or helpful.”

John Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com or 603-727-3217.

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