Roman Jewish leader blasts Berlusconi’s remarks on Hitler

(see related) (ANSA) – Rome, November 6 – The president of the Jewish Community in Rome on Tuesday lashed out at remarks made by centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi, who said his children have told him they feel like Jewish families living under Hitler because of alleged judicial persecution against the three-time premier and media mogul. ”We are indignant after the words of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi. We maintain that the comparison made with the Jewish people under the persecution of Hitler, whose project was extermination, is absolutely out of place. We trust in its rectification without delay,” said Riccardo Pacifici. ”Moreover it is not the first time that well-known faces of Italian politics trivialize the history of Nazism and the Holocaust,” continued Pacifici. ”The time has come to understand that on this subject, on Hitler and the Nazi persecution of the Jews, there are no parallels,” Pacifici declared. The president of Italy’s Union of Jewish Communities on Tuesday also blasted Berlusconi’s remarks Tuesday.

”(The comparison) is not only inappropriate and incomprehensible but also offensive to the memory of those who were deprived of all rights and, after unutterable and atrocious suffering, their lives,” said Renzo Gattegna. Earlier Wednesday the ex-premier’s statements were made public in previewed excerpts from a forthcoming book by Italian journalist Bruno Vespa.