October 16 1943, 76 years ago. In the early morning hours of that notorious Saturday, a holiday for the Jews, specifically chosen to take as many as possible by surprise, 365 German police forces, assisted by fourteen officers and non-commissioned officers, carried out a targeted “roundup” of members of Rome’s Jewish community. The cries of horror and fear are all that remain of that day. 1,259 people (including 207 children) were taken to the Tiburtina railway station and loaded onto a convoy of 18 cattle wagons. The train left at 2.05 p.m. on Monday 18 October, and it reached Auschwitz concentration camp at 11 p.m. on 22 October. Only 15 men and 1 woman returned to Italy. The Mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi and the President of Rome’s Jewish Community have laid wreaths outside the Great Synagogue. Rome does not forget the tragedy of the Holocaust – said Raggi – because without memory there is no future.”
Only a few days ago there was an attack on the synagogue in Halle, Germany, where anti-Semitic slur resounded again and unfortunately it never died. The 27-year-old terrorist’s goal was to “kill the highest number of Jews” because “they are the evil of the world.” These words erase in a second over 70 years of history, and they dangerously bring us back to a dark past that risks becoming our present.
“How do you expect a person who was a victim of hate speech to feel?” said Life Senator Liliana Segre.
I’m from Milan, she promptly points out. She was not in Rome and her memory immediately goes to Switzerland: in fact, that year, following the persecutions, she tried to escape to Lugano, Switzerland, together with her father and two cousins, but they were rejected by Swiss officials and the next day she was arrested. On January 30, 1944 she was deported from Platform 21 of Milan’s Central Station to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The serial number 75190 was tattooed on her forearm.
“Words rapidly escalate to action”, Segre warned. “I’m almost 90 years-old and I’ll never forget what happened. Anti-Semitic and racist slogans in football stadiums, online anti-Jewish manifestos, Fascist salutes in cemeteries, acts of vandalism near the synagogues. “I’m deeply disturbed by these facts”, remarked the Senator. “It continues to happen. I’ve been visiting schools for 30 years to speak about the Shoah. Thirty years of talking about what I have seen and experienced in person. I lost my family. Every word, every insult affects me, worries me. It makes me think that 6 million Jews killed have died in vain. There is no instant medicine that can be introduced into society, like an antibiotic, to heal the infection. Unfortunately, we are facing a disease that does not react to any kind of antibiotic.
The words of hatred are age-old, they are being repeated today, they are the result of the indifference and silence to words of hatred.”
On 19 January 2018, marking the 80th anniversary of the fascist racial laws, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella appointed her Senator for Life. It is here, in the Senate, that Liliana Segre continues her battle of civilization today. She presented a bill against “hate speech” and is working to set up a parliamentary Commission to monitor the phenomena of intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred and violence. “Fortunately,” she said, “PM Conte has already scheduled it for October 29. So there will be a vote in the Senate. We must start from the stadiums, from all public places. We must start to punish with fines, sanctions, and prison sentence.” No more impunity, but rules whereby “all those who nurture this hatred and express it in words and actions will be made responsible.”
