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.
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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.
