Holocaust diary counters anti-Semitism in soccer
ROME — 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 anti-Semitism by fans of the Rome club Lazio.
Lazio supporters on 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 anti-Semitic stickers on 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 Serie A, B and C matches in Italy this week, plus amateur and youth games over the weekend, to promote Holocaust remembrance, the soccer federation said.
Racism has been widespread for years in many Italian and European stadiums — targeting both players and fans — 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.”
Antonio Tajani, the head of the European Parliament who is Italian, also denounced those responsible, saying in Brussels that anti-Semitism has no place in Europe, which must remain a place of religious tolerance.
“Using the image of Anne Frank as an insult against others is a very grave matter,” Tajani said.
The Italian soccer federation will also likely open an investigation, which could result in a complete stadium ban for Lazio — matches played behind closed doors without fans — or force the team to play on neutral ground.
“These incidents must be met with disapproval, without any ifs, ands or buts,” Sports Minister Luca Lotti said.
The chosen Anne Frank diary 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 tranquility will return once more.”
Lazio President Claudio Lotito sought Tuesday to dissociate the club from its hard-core “ultra” fans by visiting Rome’s main synagogue. He said the club would intensify its efforts to combat racism and anti-Semitism and organize an annual trip to the Auschwitz concentration camp with some 200 young Lazio fans to “educate them not to forget.”