Why Liliana Segre is Right About Anti-Semitism

Dear Director, anti-Semitism is one of the most abject expressions of human history, one of the worst expressions of evil. It is also the banality of evil, according to the famous expression of the philosopher Hannah Arendtbecause it feeds on the silent acceptance of evil.

An evil that is always unacceptable: in fact, we will never stop condemning anti-Semitism, with the strength of reason and heart, and asking ourselves how it is possible that, after so many centuries of history and so many horrors, there are still manifestations of this kind.

Segre on young FdI members and their fascist and anti-Semitic tendencies: “Shall I be kicked out of my country again?”

by Zita Dazzi

June 29, 2024

Anti-Semitism has various vile expressions: there is the far-right one, with Nazi-fascist nostalgia, and there is the left-wing anti-Semitism. In the columns of this newspaper, with reference to the French case, Bernard-Henri Levy writes: “The anti-Semitic left is back. Anti-Semitism is with us, as on the right, since the time of Prohudon.” Very often, in recent times, the debate over what is happening in Gaza has spilled over into blatant forms of anti-Semitism and violent demonstrations, such as when the flag of the State of Israel is burned. This is particularly hateful if one considers that the massacre of October 7, as demonstrated by the videos that were released, had the character of a real anti-Jewish pogrom.

Ignorance, prejudice, amorality are unfortunately back among young people. To defeat anti-Semitism, we must therefore work on memory and culture. And that is what the Meloni government is doing with tangible and concrete actions.

When a few weeks after taking office, my friend Senator Esther Mieli the senator for life made a correct observation to me Liliana Secret who had noticed that inside the Milan train station there was a lack of historical signage capable of directing passengers – who number in the millions every year – towards “Platform 21” and the Holocaust memorial, I immediately welcomed this sacrosanct need, sharing its ethical and moral value in full. Together with the senator, on a day that I will carry in my heart, we inaugurated a multimedia totem that tells the story of “Platform 21” from which the Milanese Jews departed headed for the extermination camps. We created it in a few weeks together with the historical signage. The same initiative was then replicated, a year later, at the Tiburtina station in Rome, another painful place for those same events. I always thank Senator Segre for her testimony and her courage, which made her a moral reference for all of us.

The Meloni government brought to Parliament, which then approved the law establishing the National Museum of the Shoah, which will be built in Rome. The measure was passed unanimously by the Senate and the Chamber, and this is a good thing, because on such high principles there is no division. It exists in many European capitals, others had theorized it for decades but it was this government that proposed a clear and unequivocal law.

This year, on the 80th anniversary of the massacre, I promoted a solemn visit by the German Minister of Culture, Claudia Rothtogether with his colleague Francesco Lollobrigidaat the Fosse Ardeatine, and also at the Ghetto of Rome, in memory of the roundup of 1943. We will continue to work with ever greater commitment in this direction.

The Ministry of Culture has also worked in concert with Jewish communities to support restoration and enhancement interventions of some Italian synagogues, from Milan to Venice. It was a duty of the State to support these initiatives, because they represent symbolic places of the history of our Nation and our culture.

Italian Jewish culture is one of the essential pillars of our national culture, expressed in art, literature, and science. And Italian Jews have made a fundamental contribution to the development of our nation. During my visit to the city of Modena, I wanted to lay a wreath in the place where he died. Angel Fortunato Formigginian extraordinary editor and intellectual, who committed suicide in protest against the racial laws of fascism.

All this does not exempt us from expressing a firm and unequivocal condemnation for those serious manifestations of anti-Semitism reported by the media in recent days. Anti-Semitism, whether right or left, is not acceptable in civilization.

I picked up a fundamental book again: “The Origins of Totalitarianism” by Hannah Arendt, in the Einaudi edition, and I extracted a clear warning: «We can no longer afford the luxury of taking what was good in the past and calling it simply a legacy, of discarding the bad and considering it simply a dead weight that time will take care of burying in oblivion».