Italian Catholic and Jewish leaders condemn the placing of a Nazi flag on a coffin at a church funeral.
community expressed outrage that such events could still happen more than seven decades after the end of World War Two and the fall of Italy’s fascist dictatorship.
“It is unacceptable that a flag with a swastika can still be shown in public in this day and age, especially in a city that saw the deportation of its Jews by the Nazis and their fascist collaborators,” the statement said. After a raid on Rome’s Jewish neighborhood on Oct. 16, 1943, more than 1,000 of the capital’s Jews were deported, most to the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Only 16 returned.
The Jewish community statement on Tuesday said the funeral incident was “even more outrageous because it took place in front of a church.”