ROME (JTA) — A scrawled swastika and graffiti that mocks Anne Frank have drawn outraged reactions from Rome’s mayor, Jewish leaders and other officials.
The graffiti was discovered Wednesday on a wall near an old fort in an outlying district, where the Nazis executed anti-fascists in 1943 and 1944. A park near the fort was dedicated last year to victims of Nazism and fascism.
The graffiti’s epithet used a play on words with Anne Frank’s name to read "Anne Frank didn’t get away with it." In Italian, the phrase to make something "franca" means to get away with it.
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno called the incident "obscene and shameful." He said it "offends the memory of those who paid with their lives for one of the most aberrant forms of racial discrimination."
