(JTA) — Anti-Jewish graffiti was discovered in multiple locations in Italy as the country observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan 27.
On Monday night, the words “die dirty Jew” were discovered outside the home of Maria Bigliani, 65, in Turin. “It is a terrible message, especially on Holocaust Memorial Day,” she told local media.
In Rome, a swastika and graffiti described by local media as anti-Semitic were found drawn on a high school, the Associated Press reported.
Near Vicenza, a poster was hung on a Democratic Party bulletin board that said: “January 27, the day of memory, let’s remember to reopen the ovens.”
Ruben Della Rocca, vice president of the Jewish Community in Rome, said that anti-Semitism is on the rise “and we need to be more on guard,” the news agency LaPresse reported, according to the AP.
The latest incidents come in the wake of another instance of anti-Jewish graffiti last week, in which the home of Aldo Rolfi, the son of a survivor of the Ravensbruck concentration camp, was defaced. Hundreds of people carrying candles and some carrying yellow stars came out on Friday evening in support of Rolfi and to protest against anti-Semitism.