5000 Jews March in Rome

Some 5000 Jews, about one-third of the city’s 15,000 Jews, marched through the center of Italy’s capital Tuesday in solidarity with the demonstration in Paris and to protest against recent anti-Semitic events in France. Jewish owned shops were closed all over the city as their owners and their families swelled the ranks of the demonstrators.

Marchers carried signs with the words “Treblinka,” “Dachau,” “Auschwitz” and “Risiera di san Saba.” The latter was the only Italian death camp. It was located in Trieste. Other signs said “No to fascism” and “Never again.”

The Democratic and Anti-Fascist Forces in Italy, a united front group, delivered a message to the French Ambassador on behalf of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities which stated that anti-Semitic incidents in France, especially the synagogue bombing, are part of one single criminal plan that united the incidents in Paris to those of Bologna and Munich” where fatal bombings also occurred.

The spirit of the demonstration in Rome was perhaps epitomized by one of the young marchers who was quoted in the Rome daily, II Messaggero, and identified only as “Daniel.” He said: “The times have changed. Crystal Night was the work of a minority, but it led to the destruction of Europe. We, now, will cut out the disease at its roots. The Auschwitz syndrome no longer exists.” As he said this he pointed to the signs bearing the names of concentration camps.

“But I am here today,” continued Daniel, “above all, in order to ask my non-Jewish co-nationals, the Italians, not to tolerate the anti-Semitism in our midst as well. The anti-Jewish graffiti and the swastikas in Monteverdi, the Balduina, Fregene and Ostio (sections of Rome) do not seem to scandalize anyone and yet this is precisely how things get started, by shutting an eye to these outrages.”