Right-wing hooligans vandalized a synagogue memorial stone in eastern Germany after a commemoration of the Kristallnacht anti-Jewish pogroms during the Nazi era.

The youths on Thursday night tore away flowers placed at the memorial stone in the German-Polish border city of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and threw candles placed there onto the street, police said. When officers arrived at the scene, several of the youths shouted, “Sieg Heil,” a common Nazi chant, police said.

Sixteen people aged 15 to 24 were detained with police calling them “known people in the right-wing scene.” Prosecutors announced an investigation.

Before the incident, about 200 people had gathered at the memorial stone, which marked the site where a synagogue once stood, to take part in a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass, on November 9, 1938.

On that night throughout Germany and in parts of Austria, Nazi Stormtroopers and ordinary civilians burned down, damaged and ransacked nearly all of Germany’s synagogues and attacked Jews, their homes and businesses, and Jewish cemeteries.

Some people were beaten to death, about 30,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps, and the glass from vandalized stores and homes that littered the streets the next morning resulted in the name of the pogrom. Kristallnacht marked a turning point in the Nazi’s treatment of the Jews, which then changed from economic, political and social persecution to murder.

Police said they would guard the site in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder Friday night to prevent further unrest.

In other parts of Germany where violence and right-wing demonstrations over the anniversary had been feared, police reported no disturbances. In Munich, right-wing groups observed a government ban on demonstrations for the dedication of a synagogue.

In Essen, police had prepared for rioting after a right-wing demonstration was prohibited, but it remained quiet.

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