Italians Protest Antisemitism After Resistance Fighter’s House Defaced With Nazi-Style Graffiti
by Algemeiner Staff
Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of the Italian town of Mondovi to protest against antisemitism after the house of a former World War II resistance fighter was daubed with Nazi-style graffiti last week.
Friday’s candlelit demonstration came in response to the vandalism of the house of Lidia Beccaria — a resistance fighter who survived the women-only Ravensbruck concentration camp. Beccaria’s son Aldo now lives in the house. The door to the property was defaced with the German words “Juden Hier” — “Jews are here” — above a scrawled Star of David.
Pointing to the offending slogan, first seen in Nazi Germany during the 1930s, Stefano Casarino — head of Italy’s National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI) — told the marchers: “This happened here, in Mondovi, in 2020.”
Aldo Beccaria also addressed the crowd, slamming the “utter ignorance” of the vandals. His mother — a powerful voice in Italy for Holocaust commemoration after the war, who passed away in 1996 — was not Jewish herself.
Residents sing '#BellaCiao' to protest anti-Semitic graffiti in #Mondovi, #Italy pic.twitter.com/dTxvSyFl8Q
— Ruptly (@Ruptly) January 25, 2020