Tensions in Rome’s Jewish Ghetto, with insults and shouts directed at the ANPI: “Shame on you, go away”

Tensions in Rome’s ghetto, where a ceremony was scheduled to mark the anniversary of the round-up of Jews on 16 October 1943. Some members of the Roman community began shouting and hurling insults at the ANPI delegation: “You must leave”, “out, out”, “shame on you”, they shouted at the association of partisans. The ANPI delegation was therefore removed from the area set aside for the ceremony marking the anniversary of the round-up and moved behind “some barriers”, as provincial president Marina Pierlorenzi explained. Other associations, in a show of solidarity, followed the partisans and stood alongside them. These included ANED (National Association of Former Deportees to Nazi Camps), FIAP (Italian Federation of Partisan Associations) and the National Association of War Victims. 

In recent days, the president of the Roman Jewish community, Victor Fadlun, had asked the ANPI not to attend “as a matter of respect”, he said on the sidelines of the commemoration. “Their presence was unwelcome; one does not go into someone else’s home during a time of mourning without being welcome,” Fadlun went on to say. “Especially when the families’ grief concerns one of the most painful chapters in our two-thousand-year history: the day of the round-up and deportation of 1,022 Jews to the extermination camps. Only sixteen returned, and not a single child. There is no doubt that the ANPI’s decision, given our official positions, was a provocation,” he added. “And it was right to exclude them from the ceremony, so as not to disturb a moment of profound suffering, the pain that is renewed by an immense wound. We do not want the ANPI, not only on 16 October, but also on other occasions dedicated to remembrance and the struggle against Nazi-Fascism, to which the Jewish community contributed with 2,000 partisans. They have gone so far as to exclude the Jewish Brigade from the 25 April parade, and now they are solely engaged in politics and have repeatedly expressed their solidarity with pro-Palestinian demonstrations. It is no longer an association of partisans committed to preserving memory, but a movement that betrays that memory and engages in politics. We will once again hold the ANPI in high regard when it returns to being the true guardian of memory and of a shared ideological heritage,” stated Fadlun, whilst emphasising that he harbours “a deep respect for the history of the partisan struggle, which is our history. “I recall that 5 per cent of Italian Jews fought in the Resistance, whilst the national average is ten times lower. We were deeply hurt to see the Jewish Brigade excluded from the 25 April march, and we were deeply hurt once again to see the ANPI’s condescension towards the pro-Pal squares,” he continued. “We believe that the ANPI should not act as a political party; it should not engage in politics but should return to its role of preserving the memory of the Partisan struggle and the Resistance. We believe this, we have full respect for it, and we are against any form of violence, even if it is merely verbal,” he clarified. “This is a peaceful community and a respectful one. But today it is a matter of decency,” he emphasised. When asked whether it had been a mistake on the part of Roma Capitale to invite the ANPI, Fadlun replied: “I think that 16 October is a time of deep mourning for our community. There are direct relatives of those who were deported. And so sensitivity and respect are required.” 

The ANPI’s version is the opposite. “We were attacked,” said Pierlorenzi instead, “they don’t want the ANPI here, telling us that we are pro-Palestine and that we cannot be in this square.” As an association, he continued, “we assert the role we played during the Resistance and in the years that followed, whilst respecting every religion and every political viewpoint. For this reason, what the president of Rome’s Jewish community said is so serious that it has deeply saddened us; however, those words have not prevented us from being here and bearing witness.” Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony, Pierlorenzi went on to say that “we had been expecting a summons from the Prefect of Rome as early as 25 April, when two of our members were injured by an air gun and by an individual who espouses the most fundamentalist views within the community. “To issue instructions to expel us from a ceremony that is not organised by the Jewish community but by the Municipality of Rome means, for us, that we have every right to be here in this square,” he concluded.