Polish Jews and Christians prayed together and marched silently to oppose last week's desecration of a memorial to Polish Jews burned to death in World War Two.

As many as 100 people protested the crime in the town of Jedwabne near the eastern city of Bialystok.

Vandals spray painted a swastika and the words “they were flammable” on the stone monument where Polish citizens, urged on by the Nazis, locked hundreds of Jews in a barn and burned them alive in 1941.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski apologized on behalf of the Polish people for the vandalism. He condemned it as stupid and immature.

The desecration is part of a recent wave of racist attacks in Poland. Victims also include Muslims and Lithuanians.