A mural of Holocaust survivors in Italy has been defaced in a “demented act” of vandalism.
The Milanese mural through artist aleXsandro Palombo options Holocaust survivors Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano, whose faces and Stars of David have been scratched out.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors have been portrayed in striped camp uniforms and bulletproof vests.
The paintings, unveiled on September 28, aimed to emphasise Holocaust remembrance as antisemitism rises in Europe.
The defacement got here simply then a pro-Palestinian rally in Milan the place some demonstrators focused Segre, a 94-year-old Italian senator, labeling her a “Zionist agent.” Palombo, outraged through the rhetoric, spoke back with the mural.
The vandalism has drawn a backlash throughout Italy.
Mario Venezia, head of Italy’s Holocaust memorial museum, referred to as it a “demented act” that “damages walls but not history.” Italian Democratic Birthday celebration legit Piero Fassino additionally condemned the operate, calling it a “cowardly assault on Holocaust memory.”
Palombo’s work of art incessantly take on hot-button problems. Latter yr, he created a mural appearing Holocaust sufferer Anne Frank then to a tender Palestinian woman.
His mural portraying Vlada Patapov, the “girl in red” who survived the Hamas assault all over the Nova pageant on October 7, 2023, used to be additionally defaced nearly right away then being finished.
“The antisemitic fury unleashed by Hamas is overwhelming Jews in every part of the world, this horror that re-emerges from the past must make us all reflect because it undermines freedom, security and the future of us all,” Palombo instructed EuroNews.
“Terrorism is the very denial of humanity and has nothing to do with resistance, it uses people with aim [the] to divide and drag them into the abyss of its evil, into an infernal vortex that has no end. There can be no peace until terrorism is eradicated; [legitimizing] it means condemning to death the whole humanity,” Palombo added.
Rome’s Shoah Museum condemned the vandalism in a commentary, announcing “these acts not only harm art but undermine the value of Memory, which is fundamental for building a conscious and just society”.
