Protesters against COVID-19 measures wear concentration camp uniforms in northern Italy
Footage released over the weekend shows protesters against COVID-19 measures wearing concentration camp uniforms and marching through Novara, a city in northern Italy.
The protesters can be seen wearing the blue and white uniforms that prisoners in concentration camps were forced to wear. They marched in a line whilst holding a long, knotted piece of string intended to resemble the barbed wire that surrounded concentration camps.
It was also reported that some of the demonstrators from Saturday’s event carried signs that read “We are like prisoners of Auschwitz” and “Stop dictatorship”.
Noemi Di Segni, President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, said that “In the face of ravings like this one cannot invoke the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution. We have witnessed an abuse and an offense to memory.”
The inflammatory and misleading comparison has been used among anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks, which have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.
In August, antisemitic protest signs have prompted hate speech and incitement of violence investigations in France. Earlier this year, organisers of an anti-vaccine demonstration in the city of Avignon were described as “brainless” for using the Nazi yellow star in their protest. Joseph Szwarc, a Holocaust survivor, spoke out against this use of the yellow star, saying: “You can’t imagine how much that upset me. This comparison is hateful. We must all rise up against this ignominy.” With tears in his eyes, Mr Szwarc added: “I wore the star, I know what that is, I still have it in my flesh. It is everyone’s duty to not allow this outrageous, antisemitic, racist wave to pass over us.”
The comparison has been made across the world, including in the United States, Canada, Ukraine, and elsewhere.
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