Anne Frank diary to be read at matches to condemn anti-Semitism

ROME: Italy’s football authorities, reacting to an anti-Semitic outburst by Lazio fans, ordered stadiums to hold a minute’s silence at their next matches while a passage from the diary of Holocaust victim Anne Frank is read out.

Stickers of Anne Frank wearing the jersey of Lazio’s city rivals AS Roma were found on walls and bathrooms in a section of Rome’s Olympic Stadium used by Lazio supporters during their Serie A match against Cagliari on Sunday.

The incident was sharply criticised by Italian politicians and media, with President Sergio Mattarella calling it ”inhuman and alarming for our country”.

At the next match in all Italy’s soccer divisions, a minute’s silence will be held “to condemn the recent episodes of anti-Semitism and to continue to remember the Holocaust”, the football federation said in a statement on Tuesday.

While the players line up in the centre of the pitch a poignant passage from Anne Frank’s diary will be read out over the loudspeakers.

The passage reads: “I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquillity will return once more.”

On Monday, Lazio president Claudio Lotito and other team officials laid a wreath of flowers at Rome’s synagogue in an effort to made amends with the Jewish community.

Rome Jewish community leader Ruth Dureghello welcomed the gesture but said it was not enough. She said ”collective awareness” was needed to bring an end to such anti-Semitic acts.

Episodes of racism are commonplace in Italian football and Lazio supporters, who have a reputation for right-wing extremism, have often run into trouble with the authorities.

The team’s hardcore fans left the stickers and anti-Semitic slogans such as “Roma fans are Jews” in a section of the stadium where Roma supporters usually sit when their team are playing.

The two sides share the same stadium. — Reuters