Stumbling Stone Holocaust Memorial Stolen In Northwest Italy
A stumbling stone, or Stolperstein. Image by Getty Images
ROME (JTA) – Italian police are investigating the theft of a “stumbling stone” Holocaust memorial to an Auschwitz victim.
The memorial, a gold-colored cobblestone-sized monument embedded in sidewalk, was stolen last week just a month after it was placed in Collegno, a suburb of Turin in northwest Italy.
Collegno Mayor Francesco Casciano called the theft a “deplorable act that goes beyond vandalism” as it took place at “a time when a resurgence of neofascism” threatens democratic society.
The stumbling stone commemorated Massimo De Benedetti, who was deported from Collegno and killed in Auschwitz in October 1944.
The theft was the latest in a spate of vandal attacks on stumbling stone memorials in Italy in recent weeks. These included the theft of one in Venice and defacement of one in Milan.
The incidents have taken place in the run-up to general elections scheduled for March 4, in which the populist Five Star Movement and virulently anti-immigrant, far-right League Party are expected to make strong showings.
On Feb. 3, a far-right activist and League supporter wounded six African migrants in a drive-by shooting in the central Italian town of Macerata. On Tuesday, Italy’s Jewish leadership issued formal backing for a national anti-fascist demonstration scheduled to take place in Rome on Saturday but said it would not officially take part because of Shabbat.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
