"It was chilling to see this ... I mean this is a neighborhood and community that is incredibly inclusive, and to see what is the ultimate symbol of evil and hatred and murder, frankly, having been painted all over the sidewalk was really disturbing," he said.
The appearance of the graffiti hit Szabo especially hard, given his family history.
"My grandparents were Holocaust survivors. My grandmother saw her mom, her dad, her grandfather and her 10-year-old brother walked into the gas chambers," he said.
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San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks jumped into action as soon as they got word of the damage from police.
"We immediately called our paint shop, and they arrived within minutes to clean up the approximately 13 swastikas painted across the park," said Rec and Parks spokswoman Tamara Barak Aparton.
"I know that we've seen an increase in the number of hate crimes. I'm really, really worried, that people feel that, because they're seeing someone like our leaders do this, they somehow think that its okay to act this way, or put these kind of symbols out there," he said.