“The principles that shaped our Republican Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are the radical rejection of the universe that led to Auschwitz,” Mattarella said.
“Unfortunately, today we see those principles threatened around the world by bloody wars of aggression, by obtuse repression and summary executions, by a worrying re-emergence - fed by the distorted use of social media - of anti-Semitism, intolerance, racism and denialism, which is the most sly and insidious form of racism.”
Mattarella recalled the Fascist regime’s 1938 racial laws and complicity of the Nazi puppet Italian Social Republic in deporting Jews to the death camps between 1943 and 1945.
“In 1938 the Fascist regime cruelly acted against a part of its people,” Mattarella said, adding that the Constitution says Italy must “never again” be a racist State.
Meloni said that “the Shoah represents the abyss of humanity” in her message for Holocaust Memorial Day.
She added that it was “an evil that touched in depth our nation too, with the abomination of the 1938 racial laws.
“It is our duty to make sure that the memory of those events and of what happened is not brought down to a mere stylistic exercise,” she continued.
“The challenge that all of us - institutions, civil society, educational agencies, information and mass media organs - have before us is to cultivate our commitment to the memory (of the Holocaust) every day, raise awareness in young generations and intensify the effort to combat anti-Semitism in every form it manifests itself.”
Hungarian-Italian Shoah survivor Edith Bruck said on Friday it was necessary "to remember for today, yesterday and tomorrow".
A writer and poet, Bruck, 91, was a witness to the Shoah in her native Hungary, and said "woe betide us if people do not remember and that is true for today, for yesterday, and for tomorrow: what happens has happened before and will happen again.
"Time is only one single thing and every day we must denounce everything that happens: everything concerns us, today we can no longer say 'I didn't know'."
Bruck was speaking in a video link with the convent of St Maximilian Kolbe in Rome, where a day of reflection on the theme of communication, 'The Ten Words of Pope Francis', was taking place.
In a tweet posted on Friday, Pope Francis stressed the need to never forget the atrocities of the Shoah.
“The memory of the extermination of millions of Jewish people and people of other faiths must neither be forgotten nor denied,” the Argentine pontiff said.
“There can be no fraternity without first dispelling the roots of hatred and violence that fueled the horror of the Holocaust.”
In related news, Italian police on Friday cited 20 people including an Italian celebrity chef for making online slurs against 92-year-old Holocaust survivor and life Senator Liliana Segre, judicial sources said.
The suspects, including Chef Rubio, have been charged by the Milan Carabinieri for insults posted on the web against Senator Segre.
Gabriele Rubini, 39, known professionally as Chef Rubio, is a former semi-professional Italian rugby player and television presenter for DMAX, where he hosts a cooking programme.
The charge, for all of them, is defamation by ‘telematic’ means with the aggravating circumstance of religious, ethnic or racial motivations.
Last month Segre reported 24 people including Rubini for making the latest in a string of anti-Semitic attacks on her on social media.
Segre, said Chef Rubio had slammed her for not defending the Palestinians in her recent remarks on Israel, which he called a “fascist” state.
Rubio accused Segre of “a deafening silence over the plight of Palestine”.
Israel Honorary Consul Marco Carrai said it was “disappointing that so many young people follow a figure who incites social hate like this chef,” and added that unlike Rubio’s many tattoos, the one on Segre’s arm had been inscribed when she reached Auschwitz as a girl.
Milan prosecutors opened a probe on the basis of Segre’s 24 complaints, into death threats and aggravated defamation.
ANSA
