Three young Jews and four Italian neo-fascists are under arrest here today on charges of “aggravated rioting” after a fight Friday night when the Jews were badly beaten and mauled by a gang of right-wing Italians. Jewish circles here are criticizing the police for “indiscriminate” arrests, complaining that the Jews should not have been placed in the same category with the neo-fascist hoodlums.
The fight started when a group of Italians insulted a Jewish girl, 21-year-old Leda Afrati, as she passed the headquarters of the neo-fascist Movement of Avant Garde Juveniles, on her way home from a store where she works, near that headquarters. One of the Italian youths, she said, showed her a photograph of an Italian member of Hitler’s Elite Guard, telling her: “This is my father. Soon all Jews will be deported and exterminated, and you too will end in a crematorium.”
Miss Efrati telephoned police and her fiance, Sergio Sermoneta. The latter arrived with a policeman and with two Jewish friends to protect the girl. Subsequently, during a fight in a nearby cafe, Sermonetta and his friends were beaten by a mob of neo-fascists. The police then arrested Semonetta, his two Jewish friends, and four of the neo-fascists.
Jewish circles here are demanding that the charges against the Jews be dropped, and that the police punish only those who are responsible for initiating the brawl.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
