Italian fans’ Anne Frank stickers ‘inconceivable’

Anne Frank’s diary will be read aloud at all soccer matches in Italy this week, the Italian soccer federation announced Tuesday after shocking displays of antiSemitism by fans of the Rome club Lazio.

Lazio supporters Sunday littered the Stadio Olimpico in Rome with images of Anne Frank — the young diarist who died in the Holocaust — wearing a jersey of city rival Roma. The ultra right-wing fans of Lazio associate their Roma counterparts with being left wing and Jewish and had hoped to incite Roma fans since the teams share the same stadium.

Stadium cleaners found the antiSemitic stickers Monday and Italian police have opened a criminal inquiry into the case.

The Anne Frank diary passage reading will be combined with a minute of silence observed before matches in Italy this week to promote Holocaust remembrance, the soccer federation said.

Racism has been widespread for years in many Italian and European stadiums and measures such as banning fans and forcing teams to play behind closed doors have not solved the problem.

Outrage over the stickers came from a wide variety of officials and rights groups across Europe, from both inside and outside the world of sports.

“Anne Frank doesn’t represent a people or an ethnic group. We are all Anne Frank when faced with the unthinkable,” Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said. “What has happened is inconceivable.”

Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni called the stickers “unbelievable, unacceptable and not to be minimized.”

The Italian soccer federation will also likely open an investigation, which could result in a complete stadium ban for Lazio or force the team to play on neutral ground.