Controversy over spiked antifascist speech dominates Italy's Liberation Day anniversary

ROME (AP) — Italy on Thursday marked its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule with marches, monologues and a media controversy over the legacy of Italian complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes.

The day began with the solemn Liberation Day commemoration at Rome's tomb of the unknown soldier. Presiding was Italy's president and Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini.

It ended with marches, speeches and occasional clashes between police and pro-Palestinian groups who used the occasion to voice outrage at Israel's war in Gaza.

But inbetween, this year’s anniversary was overshadowed by a media storm over the decision by state-run RAI television to spike a planned Liberation Day monologue by an Italian author denouncing fascism and what he said was Meloni’s refusal to repudiate it.

The issue struck a nerve in Italy, where Meloni’s 2022 election as the first hard-right leader since World War II has revived criticism that Italians haven’t fully reckoned with their fascist past as ordinary Germans did with the Nazi era.

The suggestion that RAI censored Antonio Scurati’s monologue because it criticized Meloni and lingering neo-fascist sentiment in Italy has dominated newscasts for days, and probably drew far more attention to the text than it would have if RAI had aired it as planned.

Scurati is the author of the prize-winning volume “M,” about Mussolini’s rise and its parallels with the present day.

In the end, Scurati read the monologue aloud in person from the podium of Milan's main Liberation Day event Thursday, holding a red carnation as he read — the symbol of the Italian Socialists who opposed Mussolini's rise.

The text recounted two well-known incidents: the June 10, 1924 assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, a Socialist lawmaker opposed to fascism by Mussolini hitmen; and the 1944 massacres of Italian civilians during the waning period of Nazi occupation.

“These two concomitant mournful anniversaries — spring of ’24, spring of ’44 — proclaim that fascism was throughout its historical existence — not only at the end or occasionally — an irredeemable phenomenon of systematic, murderous and massacre-fueled political violence,” Scurati said. “Will the heirs of that history recognize this for once? Everything, unfortunately, suggests that they will not.”

Meloni has tried to distance her Brothers of Italy party from its neo-fascist roots and has gone out of her way to forge ties with Italy’s Jewish community. Her forces have backed a long-delayed project for a Holocaust Museum and have strongly supported Israel, including in its current war in Gaza.

But the opposition has accused Meloni and her forces of refusing to firmly declare themselves “anti-fascist.”

In a bid to put the issue to rest, Meloni in recent days published Scurati's essay on her own Facebook page with an introduction accusing the left-wing opposition of concocting a scandal where none existed.

In the post, Meloni said she didn't know who at RAI decided to cancel the Scurati appearance. But she noted that the state-run broadcaster had said it just didn’t want to pay Scurati the agreed-upon 1,800 euros ($1,930) "for a one-minute monologue.”

In an Instagram post Thursday, Meloni didn't refer to the controversy and again avoided using the term “anti-fascist.” But she celebrated how Liberation Day symbolized “the end of fascism” and "laid the foundations for the return of democracy."

“We reaffirm our aversion to all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Those of yesterday, which oppressed peoples in Europe and the world, and those of today, which we are determined to oppose with commitment and courage,” she wrote.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella, whose ceremonial position puts him above the political fray, took a harder line. After laying a wreath with Meloni at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome, he travelled to the Tuscan town of Civitella, site of a 1944 Nazi massacre of 244 civilians.

There, he demanded that Italians never forget the “Nazi-fascist barbarism” of World War II, including what he said was the fascist propaganda and censorship that sought to deny the massacres, murders, deportations and other crimes that took place on Italian soil.

“It is necessary — today and in the future — to remember those massacres and victims,” Mattarella said. “Without memory, there is no future.”

RAI has launched an internal investigation into the decision-making that led to Scurati's monologue being cancelled.

Perhaps predictably, the suggestion that the state-run broadcaster spiked a text critical of Meloni's governing party has drawn attention to it, with calls for mayors to use their Liberation Day speeches this year to quote from it.

“At the root, there is a rule not to be forgotten,” commentator Aldo Grasso wrote in Corriere della Sera. “Once a text is censored, there is a strong risk that the text itself is no longer controllable and goes its own unpredictable way." He termed it the "boomerang effect.’"

People unfold a Ukrainian flag as they march on the occasion of Liberation Day in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

Police face people holding Palestinians flags as they march on the occasion of Liberation Day in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini, joined the Italian president at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

A police officer prevents contacts between the Jewish brigade and supporters of Palestinian communities in Italy and pro-Palestine activists during a march in Rome on Liberation Day commemorations Thursday , April 25, 2024. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)

People hold Palestinians flags as they march during the solemn Liberation Day commemoration, in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini, joined the Italian president at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni arrives at the tomb of the unknown soldier for the solemn Liberation Day commemoration, in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini, joined the Italian president at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni talks with President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa during a ceremony at the Altar of the Fatherland for the 79th anniversary of the Liberation Day that commemorates the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic. in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)

People holding Palestinians flags march on the occasion of Liberation Day in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

Palestinian supporters hold a banner reading "Yesterday partisans, today antiZionists and antifascists" as they march on the occasion of the Liberation Day commemoration marking Italy's liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule, in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shakes hands with the president of the Republic Sergio Mattarella during a ceremony at the Altar of the Fatherland for the 79th anniversary of the Liberation Day that commemorates the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic. in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)

KIBBUTZ MEFALSIM, Israel (AP) — When Hamas fighters invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip perpetrated the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

So this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins on Sunday evening in Israel, carries a heavier weight than usual for many Jews around the world.

For Judith Tzamir, a Holocaust survivor from Germany who moved to Israel in 1964, the horrors of Oct. 7 prompted her to mark the somber holiday by making a pilgrimage she has long avoided: She will visit Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp in Poland.

Tzamir, whose kibbutz fended off Hamas attackers on Oct. 7, will join 55 other Holocaust survivors from around the world and about 10,000 others participating in the March of the Living. The event recreates the 2-mile (3-kilometer) march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, where approximately 1 million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany.

The event, now in its 36th year, usually draws thousands of participants, including Holocaust survivors and Jewish students, leaders and politicians. This year, Israeli hostages released from captivity in Gaza and families whose relatives are still being held captive will also join the march.

“I don’t know if the world will listen, but even for myself, it’s important,” said Tzamir, who had turned down past invitations to visit Auschwitz. “To remember that there’s still antisemitism around, and there are still people who will kill just for religious reasons.”

Holocaust Remembrance Day, marked on the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, has traditionally been a time for Israelis to gather and listen to testimony from survivors.

It is one of the most somber days of the year — highlighted by a two-minute siren when traffic halts and people stand at attention in memory of the victims. Memorial ceremonies are held throughout the day, and names of victims are recited. While Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, tries to steer clear of politics, its ceremony this year includes an empty yellow chair in solidarity with the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

In 1948, when Tzamir was 4 1/2 years old, the people she knew as her parents dressed her in a light blue dress, with black shoes and white socks, and took her to a plaza in Berlin. She remembers clutching her doll, Yula, when they revealed that they were not her parents and that the woman standing before them was her biological mother.

Tzamir’s mother had hidden her Jewish identity during World War II by serving in the German army. She gave birth to Judith in 1943 in a hospital run by nuns, and left Judith behind to save her life. Tzamir, called Donata at the time, was placed in a foster family. She had no idea she was Jewish until she met her mother.

Sixteen years later, while she was in college, Tzamir went to Mefalsim, a kibbutz in southern Israel on the border with Gaza, through a student-exchange program. After her studies, she returned to Mefalsim, fell in love with a new immigrant from Argentina who was also living on the kibbutz, and stayed, raising four children.

On Oct. 7, Tzamir was faced with the possibility of losing her home once again. Hamas militants poured over the border from Gaza and attacked towns, army bases and a music festival in southern Israel. Mefalsim was luckier than many other kibbutzim in the area, where militants burned homes and left wide swaths of destruction.

The militants killed around 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 250 others. The attack sparked the Israeli invasion in Gaza, where the death toll has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials, and driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes. The high death toll and humanitarian crisis have prompted genocide accusations against Israel in the International Court of Justice — a charge that Israel angrily rejects.

Hamas has said its attack was aimed against Israeli occupation and its blockade of Gaza, and pro-Palestinian activists deny any antisemitic motives in their opposition to Israel’s military offensive. For most Jewish Israelis, global protests calling for boycotts of Israel and questioning the country’s right to exist often veer into antisemitism.

On the day of the attack, Mefalsim’s emergency preparedness squad was able to hold most of the Hamas militants outside the kibbutz perimeter. Many residents stayed in safe rooms for nearly 24 hours, until the Israeli army was able to evacuate them the next day.

Although there were no fatalities at Mefalsim, its roughly 800 residents were told to leave, along with more than 120,000 Israelis who lived within a few kilometers of the borders with Gaza and Lebanon. Mefalsim, Tzamir's steady anchor after a childhood filled with upheaval and uncertainty, was no longer a safe haven.

Many Mefalsim residents have been living in a hotel north of Tel Aviv the past seven months, uncertain of next steps, though Tzamir and some others hope to return to the kibbutz in June.

Tzamir said the Oct. 7 attack brought up all kinds of memories from her childhood trauma. She could function during the day, but when she went to sleep her dreams were filled with blood and death and fires, visions that reminded her of the bombings she witnessed as a child in Germany.

Tzamir is one of approximately 2,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel who were forced to evacuate from their homes due to the war in Gaza, according to Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. The ministry estimates that 132,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel.

Tzamir served as a director of her kibbutz for 13 years, so she knows every resident. She said some families may never return to Mefalsim, just a mile (1.4 kilometers) from the Gaza border. Explosions from Gaza reverberate over the buildings, and the sense of security is difficult to reclaim.

But it was never a question for her, she said.

“I’m 80 years old, I don’t want to lose my home again,” Tzamir said as her husband Ran, busied himself tending to a garden bursting with succulents and flowers, just before their flight to Poland. “We are coming back.”

This story has been corrected to show that the spelling of the kibbutz is Mefalsim.

Judith Tzamir, a Holocaust survivor from Germany, poses for a portrait in the garden of her family home in Kibbutz Meflasim, southern Israel, Friday, May 3, 2024. On Monday, Tzamir will join 55 other Holocaust survivors from Israel and around the world for a memorial march in Poland, called March of the Living. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Judith Tzamir, a Holocaust survivor from Germany, speaks to a journalist in her family home in Kibbutz Meflasim, southern Israel, Friday, May 3, 2024. On Monday, Tzamir will join 55 other Holocaust survivors from Israel and around the world for a memorial march in Poland, called March of the Living. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Judith Tzamir, a Holocaust survivor from Germany, speaks to a journalist in her family home in Kibbutz Meflasim, southern Israel, Friday, May 3, 2024. On Monday, Tzamir will join 55 other Holocaust survivors from Israel and around the world for a memorial march in Poland, called March of the Living. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Judith Tzamir, a Holocaust survivor from Germany, poses for a portrait in her family home in Kibbutz Meflasim, southern Israel, Friday, May 3, 2024. On Monday, Tzamir will join 55 other Holocaust survivors from Israel and around the world for a memorial march in Poland, called March of the Living. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)