Lazio players came out for pre-match warm-ups wearing T-shirts with a portrait of Anne Frank and the inscription “No to anti-Semitism.” Photo: sportarena.com

In the modern world, full not only of aggression and hatred, but also of kindness and solidarity, a private initiative often turns into a massive public action. And official structures, in order to save face, join it. Because it would be rude not to join. This is what the Western world is holding on to, whose funeral has been somewhat delayed.

An article on the front page of the Rome newspaper La Reppublica, in the October 24 issue, entitled Siamo tutti Anna Frank (“We are all Anne Frank”), written by the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Mario Calabresi, had received 3.4 million “likes” by October 28 " And its headline became the slogan of an all-Italian action against racism and anti-Semitism.

Then the central defender and captain of the Fiorentina football club, Davide Astori, recorded a video where he reads a fragment from the diary of Anne Frank. All matches of the tenth round of the Italian Championship opened with the reading of a fragment and a minute of silence, or more precisely, in Italian - a minute of reflection.

"We'll act out this scene"

It all started with the fact that on October 22, after the match of the Roman “Lazio” with the Cagliari club, in the southern guest stand of the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, which preserves traces of the totalitarian art of the Mussolini era (“bare-assed supermen cast in granite,” I myself saw a few days ago , driving past the stadium in the north of the Italian capital), local people left disgusting stickers. They were addressed to another Roman team - Roma, the confrontation with which has been of a principled nature for many decades. The Lazio ultras chose Anne Frank as the symbol of their rival, wearing a yellow and red Roma T-shirt with the following inscriptions: Romanista frocio (“Roma fans are blue”) and Romanista ebreo (“Roma fans are Jewish.” ). This symbolic series is interesting because at the poster level it presents to the world the consciousness of real Pithecanthropes: in their eyes, the girl who kept the most famous diary in the world and died in March 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is a symbol of world Jewry.

It is no less symptomatic that the Roma club, founded by Mussolini, has ultras that are extreme right and have nothing to do with Jews, gays, or liberals.

But nevertheless, the historical and sports mythology of the two teams sharing their home arena with each other has formed once and for all: the blue and white (“Lazio”) are simple guys from the northern quarters, and the “fascist”, yellow and red (“Roma”) ") - the indigenous Romans, and not some kind of limit, they are supposed to be leftists. The toxicity of Lazio's reputation was at one time added by the team's idol - Paolo di Canio, a very good football player, but a complete freak in his public behavior and political views - he loved, after scoring a goal, to raise his hand in a fascist saluto romano.

Of course, a scandal broke out. Already on October 23, Ruth Duregello, the head of the Roman Jewish community, drew attention to the intolerance of such actions, followed by officials, including the Prime Minister and President of the Republic. The Lazio management needed to do something urgently, and it was decided to lay wreaths at the Roman synagogue as a sign of apology. But the transparent era of new technologies failed the club’s president, Claudio Lotito: someone managed to record his business conversation regarding the script for this action. Among other things, there were words that also became almost a meme: “Famo sta sceneggiata” - “We will act out this scene ( with the laying of wreaths. - NT)". Some time later, flowers from Lazio were found thrown into the Tiber River. The Jewish community did not hide the fact that this was done by Jewish youth outraged by Lotito’s hypocrisy.

The Lazio players, who had come out for the pre-match warm-up wearing T-shirts with Anne's portrait and the words "No to Anti-Semitism", like teams across Italy, stood at the center circle, heads bowed and hugging each other, while the announcer read out lines from the penultimate entry in Anne Frank's diary

And on October 24, the already mentioned column by Mario Calabresi was published, illustrated with a portrait of Anne Frank in the uniform of key Italian teams. Calabresi was categorical: all teams must wear uniforms with the image of a Jewish girl. During this time, sports officials, inspired by this text and the video recorded by the Fiorentina captain, decided to start the next round of matches with a memorial event.

Those who don't care

On October 25, Lazio played away in Bologna - the match was with the local club of the same name. Here again, the invisible playwright staged a stunning play.

The guest stand at the Bologna stadium is named after a Jew of Hungarian origin, Arpad Weiss, who died in Auschwitz (Auschwitz). Coach Weiss twice led Bologna to victory in the Scudetto - that is, in the national championship - in the 1930s. The guests, of course, were Lazio fans. The Lazio players, who had come out for the pre-match warm-up wearing T-shirts with Anne's portrait and the words "No to Anti-Semitism", like teams throughout Italy, stood at the center circle, heads bowed and hugging, while the announcer read out lines from the penultimate entry in Anne Frank's diary. The stadium listened to the words of a Jewish girl, which she recorded on July 15, 1944 (I quote in the classic translation by Rita Wright-Kovaleva): “I see that the world is gradually turning more and more into a desert, I hear closer and closer the rumbles of a thunderstorm that can kill us too, I feel the suffering of millions of people, and yet, when I look at the sky, I think that everything will turn out for the better, that this cruelty must come to an end and that peace and tranquility will reign on earth again.”

It was a truly amazing event.

But the Lazio fans ignored her, and then sang one of the most famous and disgusting fascist songs, “I don’t care” (Me ne frego), adding to this several insults of the hosts that are banal for ultras: “You only know how to make tortellini... Bolognese - whores."

All the efforts of the club's management, who tried with all their might to hush up the scandal, went to waste.

The police quickly found almost two dozen guys who started this mess, two of them are under 16 years old, and they cannot even be held accountable for inciting racial hatred. The Lazio club faces serious sanctions. The association of “Lacian” ultras with the characteristic name “Inflexible” (Irriducibili) was outraged by the reaction of society and the authorities, saying that they were simply making fun of Roma fans.

However, there must be a moral to this story.

Triumphant Ignorance

In an interview with Milan's Corriere della Sera, Ruth Duregello said: "This is a crisis of values ​​in the world of youth, and it would be an intolerable simplification to reduce what happened to football problems." As the election results in many countries, especially European ones, show, the fascisation of consciousness is not even exclusively a problem of the younger generation.

It is significant that the “Lacian” ultras knew something from history, at least at the level of symbols - it was no coincidence that they chose Anne Frank in this capacity. Moreover, in recent years, numerous diaries of teenagers Anna’s peers have become known. In the same way, hiding from the Nazis. And from different ghettos - Vilno, Kovno, Warsaw, Krakow. In 2006, the diary of the Polish Anne Frank, Rutka Lasker from the town of Bedzin, who died in 1943 in Auschwitz, was published for the first time.

Another phrase that spread around Italy was the statement of the coach of the Torino club, Serbian Sinisa Mihajlovic: “Anne Frank? I don't know who it is"

But, of course, fascist fans use the most recognizable image and symbol. Worse, if there can be anything worse, is ignorance and ignorance. Another phrase that spread around Italy was the statement of Torino coach, Serb Sinisa Mihajlovic: “Anne Frank? I don’t know who it is.” Questions for the education system, by the way. At school, as Mihailovic said, as far as he remembers, he studied Ivo Andric ( Yugoslav writer, Nobel Prize winner in literature. - NT), but I haven’t read Anne Frank.

Lazio management promised to take 200 fans annually on an excursion to Auschwitz. If it keeps its word, it will do a great thing. Fighting ignorance, especially among the young, is the only way to stop them from singing "I don't give a damn."

Human solidarity, conscience, complicity - they work. There are more those who say “We are all Anne Frank” than those who desecrate her memory and the memory of millions of victims, and those who “didn’t read”

Safety net

Western intellectuals are burying the old world order, forgetting, however, that the West, “declining,” every time rises from the ashes and remains attractive to the whole world - both its culture, its economic structure, and its way of life. The whining about the failure of liberalism and the new order, where Putin’s Russia will play a very serious role, had to be heard to an incredible degree of banality exactly during the days of the scandal in Italian football from the venerable Italian professors - it’s good that the students, including “two young brunettes,” seemed to have left from Brodsky’s “Roman Elegies,” it seems that they did not understand at all what these gray-haired masters were talking about. Although they may have understood something else. That for every populism there is a counter-populism. That the far right is obscene. That Western institutions, the same liberal ones, know how to resist.

Human solidarity, conscience, complicity - they work. There are more those who say “We are all Anne Frank” than those who desecrate her memory and the memory of millions of victims, and those who “didn’t read.”

The Western world, unlike the archaizing Russian world, does not yet nurture hatred and aggression, but finds ways to resist and stop them

Yes, there are noticeably more police and even military personnel on the streets of Rome today, especially around tourist attractions. But the city is still the same, the people are the same, their values ​​are approximately the same as decades ago, when the residents of the Eternal City themselves got rid of Mussolini’s troubles, and their neighbors got rid of Hitler’s. Private property is sacred and inviolable: “Our restaurant,” the waiter answers affirmatively when asked if the name of his establishment coincides with the surname of the owners, “is more than sixty years old, now it is owned by the grandchildren of the founders, and I myself have been working here for thirty-two years.” Trenti due anni! Yes, during this time such a restaurant in Moscow, and even next to the station, would change hands ten times using administrative, if not military-technical resources...

By the way, Russian speech is heard everywhere, signifying the readiness of Russian people to rendez-vous with the West - to consume its cultural and material products. Gogol's apartment, they say, was also bought by Russians. And my older comrade, a Russian old-timer in Rome, grumbles irritably: “Under this new mayor, the whole city has been spoiled.”

The main thing is that this Western world, unlike the archaizing Russian world, does not nurture hatred and aggression, but finds ways to resist and stop them.

"We are all Anne Frank" still has meaning. And no one has canceled this, from Brodsky: “I was in Rome. It was flooded with light."

And this is all about culture, the only safety net for humanity.

Lazio fans are embroiled in a powerful socio-political scandal that is shaking all of Italian football. After the home match with Cagliari (3:0), they left blasphemous stickers at the Stadio Olimpico depicting Anne Frank - one of the most famous victims of the Nazi concentration camps - in the form of Roma.

It is important to clarify several points here:

1. Roma and Lazio always play at the Stadio Olimpico, but Roma has the southern fan stand and Lazio the northern one.

2. In the last game, the main stand of Lazio was closed due to disqualification (the reason was racist chants against black Sassuolo players), but for some reason the club sold tickets to the enemy seats for only 1 euro to the banned fans.

3. As a result, Lazio fans left a bunch of messages to their enemies on the south stand - from the mentioned sticker to offensive inscriptions about Jews and gays.

4. Lazio fans have long referred to Roma as Jews in an offensive manner because their enemies are actively supported in the Jewish quarter of Rome.

Who is Anne Frank?

We will tell you very simply and briefly, but to understand the story, we recommend reading the book “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

This is a Jewish girl who was born in Germany in 1929. After Adolf Hitler came to power, the family emigrated to Holland, but it was impossible to escape the Nazi purges even there. In 1942, Anna’s older sister received a summons from the Gestapo: by that time, the Netherlands had already been occupied by Germany for two years.

The family hastily hid in a small shelter built for employees of the company where Anne Frank's father worked (there were 8 people in total), and spent 25 months there - until one day in August 1944, the Gestapo discovered a secret room and sent all the Jews to a concentration camp . Anna soon died of typhus and hunger.

Almost all evidence of life in the shelter has been preserved thanks to Anna’s diary entries in 1942-1944. The Anne Frank House Museum is located in Amsterdam.

Are Lazio fans anti-Semitic?

Not en masse, of course, but there is definitely a radical group among them. This is obvious, because this is not the first time that the image of Anne Frank has been used to mock Roma.

In 2005, Lazio fans hung up many similar stickers in Rome with the caption “Anne Frank will never write anything again, but you can buy a small piece of soap” ( this refers to the widespread belief that the Nazis made soap from the corpses of Jews. — Approx. Sports.ru). The last time such stickers flashed was in 2013, and before that (in 1998), the history of the Roman derby was overshadowed by a terrible banner “Auschwitz is your homeland, the ovens are your homes”. And that's not counting the endless chants.

In 2017, all the photographs of stickers with Anne Frank were posted on the Internet by Lazio fans themselves. It is noted that one of the pictures on Instagram was accompanied by the caption “We left something here as a souvenir for the novelists.”

According to preliminary data, the stickers were put up 15 people, of them 2 - minors, one is 13 years old. Italian football officials have already opened a disciplinary investigation which is likely to result in serious penalties for Lazio. The police will deal with violating fans.

Lazio strongly condemns all forms of intolerance and discrimination, but in every society there are bad and rotten people. Unfortunately, we cannot assign a steward to each fan,” added Lazio president Claudio Lotito.

What's next?

Before today's match against Bologna " Lazio" will warm up in T-shirts with a portrait of Anne Frank— to show that the club is “committed to fighting all forms of racism and anti-Semitism.”

President Lotito has already visited the synagogue and promised that now Lazio will send 200 fans on a tour of Auschwitz every year.

“Our job is to educate people,” Lotito said. “For example, it is worth bringing players to schools to tell children about the rules of behavior and social norms. We will also definitely take fans to Auschwitz - humanity must never forget some episodes of history.”

Before the upcoming Serie A matches there will be a moment of reflection has been appointed; will be turned on at each stadium audio recording of a short excerpt from Anne Frank's diary, and all the players will give the children who take them out onto the field, based on a book about the fight against the Jews (either “The Diary of Anne Frank” or “Is This a Man?” by Primo Levi).

“We need to spread knowledge among boys and girls. We hope that new generations will grow up with the values ​​and ideals that books like these instill in us,” the Italian Football League said in a statement.

How is Italy reacting?

The major newspaper La Repubblica responded to the scandal with an editorial column entitled "We are all Anne Frank", which was accompanied by an image of the girl in the uniforms of all the top Serie A clubs.

“These are not fans. This is not football. This is not a sport. It is urgent to remove anti-Semites from the stadium,” said the leader of the Roman Jewish community, Ruth Duregell.

“There is no excuse for this. Such incidents should be met with condemnation, without any “ands”, “buts” or “ifs,” said Italian Sports Minister Luca Lotti.

“This is unimaginable and unacceptable,” Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

In Italy, the scandal surrounding the desecrated image of Anne Frank, a victim of a Nazi concentration camp, continues unabated. Lazio fans, known for their ultra-right views, “distinguished themselves.”

WHAT'S HAPPENED?

It all started last weekend. October 22 during the match - . Eagles fans usually occupy the north stand of the Stadio Olimpico during home matches, but it was closed for previous offenses (namely for racist chants at a Lazio match).

But no one stopped the Roman fans from occupying the southern stand and leaving a “gift” to its usual owners - the fans. The sectors were covered with stickers depicting a Jewish girl, Anne Frank, in a burgundy T-shirt. In addition, signs were left everywhere with the phrases “Jews are rooting for Roma” and “Gays are rooting for Roma.”

WHO IS FRANK?

Anne Frank is one of the symbols of the Holocaust. In 1945, the girl died in the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. She was 15 years old.

For almost two years, she and her family managed to hide in a shelter before the Nazis found them. All this time she kept a diary in which she described all the horrors of that time. Today, her childhood experiences are one of the famous books in the world. Anna became a symbol of optimism and courage. A film about her is scheduled to be released in 2019.

WHAT WAS THE REACTION?

The first to sound the alarm was the head of the Jewish community of Rome, Ruth Duregello. Having learned about the action of Lazio fans, she called for the eradication of anti-Semitism in stadiums.

She was supported by Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. “This simply cannot be ignored!” - he said.

And the editor-in-chief of the newspaper La Repubblica, Mario Calabresi, wrote a text with the headline “We are all Anne Frank.” In particular, he expressed the idea that this girl should have T-shirts not only of Roma, but also of all other clubs."

As a result, the campaign, which was supported by almost all Serie A clubs, received the same name “We are all Anne Frank.” The matches of the last round, which took place in the middle of the week, began with the reading of fragments of the diary. The defender was the first to propose this idea. A video has been posted in which he reads piercing lines:

“I see the world gradually turning into a desert, and I hear the approach of thunder, bringing death to us too, I feel the suffering of millions of people. And yet, when I look at the heavens, somehow I feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty will also end, and peace and tranquility will one day return."

The fan group Irriducibili took responsibility for the action at the Stadio Olimpico. However, she did not admit her guilt. "We just wanted to make fun of the active Roma fans who usually sit in this podium. Nothing more. This is an exclusively internal fan story. And we don’t understand why such attention is being given to this! For some reason, no one was shouting at every corner, "as we honor the memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks. We believe that such an attack has one goal - to hinder the growth of Lazio, which has once again become a formidable force in Italian football," their statement said. By the way, despite the scandal, the Romans won 2:1 in Bologna. And the team’s winning streak has already reached seven matches (five in the championship and two in the Europa League).

HOW DID LAZIO JUSTIFY?

Lazio played on October 25 in Bologna. By an evil irony of fate, the visiting fans were placed on the podium, which bears the name of Arpad Weiss, a Hungarian coach of Jewish origin who led to the championship before the war, but died in Auschwitz in 1944.

So, before taking their seats on the podium, a large group of Lazio fans sang the song Me ne frego ("I don't care"), which is considered fascist, because it mentions Benito Mussolini. And the guests boycotted the reading of the diary, entering the sector only after the action.

And this negated all the club’s efforts to hush up the scandal. In particular, Lazio issued a statement in which they insisted that what happened at the match with Cagliari was “the fault of a small group of reckless people.” In addition, the Eagles came out for warm-ups in Bologna wearing T-shirts with a portrait of the deceased girl.

And even before going to the match, the Lazio delegation led by the president Claudio Lotito visited the synagogue. The club boss laid a wreath and announced that from now on 200 young fans would be sent on excursions to Auschwitz every year. “We are against any form of racism and we want our fans to understand what this is about,” Lotito said. The words are correct, but...

WHAT DID LOTITO LEARN?

The next day, the wreath laid by Lotito was found in the Tiber River. In addition, a recording of the telephone conversation appeared on the Internet. In it, Lotito can be heard discussing going to the synagogue with someone and, in particular, uttering the phrase: “Let's act out this scene.”

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW FOR LOTITO AND LAZIO?

Lotito faces a two-month suspension. First of all, for the fact that Lazio fans were in the Roma stands at the match with Cagliari.

In addition, the police identified 20 fans who may be involved in the incident. 13 of them were accused of racial discrimination and posting offensive and hateful materials. They will be banned from attending sporting events for several years.

And in the future, if such incidents are repeated, Lazio runs the risk of playing in front of empty stands. Well, if this doesn’t help, then the regulations contain clauses about removing points and about exclusion from the competition...

Tomorrow Lazio plays away. And the away fans will be watched very closely.

A loud scandal in Italian football, which began with an anti-Semitic attack by fans of the Roman club Lazio. They were accused of insulting the memory of the Jewish girl Anne Frank, one of the symbols of the Holocaust. At the same time, clumsy attempts to make amends only worsened the situation.

This topic is now the hottest in the Italian media. The long-term feud between the two Roman football clubs Lazio and Roma has escalated into a loud scandal in which almost all of Italy was involved.

It all started when Lazio fans, known for their far-right antics, scattered a portrait of the Jewish girl Anne Frank, who died in a Nazi concentration camp, at the stadium in Rome. Stickers posted around the stadium show her wearing a Roma T-shirt. Thus, the ultras seemed to hint to their enemies that the same thing would happen to you as to her.

Anne Frank became world famous after her diary, which she kept during the Nazi occupation of Holland, was published.

“I am outraged that there are still people (and I hope they are in the minority) for whom “Jew” sounds like an insult. As a Roman and a Roma fan, I don’t take this as an insult. I am proud that Anne Frank could wear our club's jersey,” said Giorgio Savona, a Roma fan.

Lazio was once the favorite team of Fascist founder Benito Mussolini, and many of its fans openly embrace neo-fascist ideology. Anti-Semitic slogans from fans have more than once become the subject of litigation. Their idol remains former Lazio player Paolo Di Cagno, who said to himself: I am a fascist, but not a racist. On his hand there is a tattoo with the inscription “Duce”, that is, “leader”, and after scoring goals he more than once raised his hand in a Nazi salute, for which he received fines from the football federation.

“Football clubs must take full responsibility for what their fans do. However, it is impossible to make any predictions as to what the charges and sanctions against Lazio will be, says journalist Marco Balboni.

Wanting to somehow hush up the scandal, Lazio president Claudi Lotito came to the Roman Jewish community with an apology and a wreath of blue and white flowers, like the uniform of his players. But this gesture turned into even greater embarrassment. A recording of his telephone conversation was leaked to the media, where just before the visit he says that he will have to act out this performance. As a result, the Jews of Rome threw the Lazio-colored wreath into the Tiber River.

The stadium announcer reads an excerpt from Anne Frank's diary. Now this is how all football matches in Italy start. This is a kind of educational measure for fans. Here are Lazio players entering the stadium wearing T-shirts with a portrait of Anne Frank and the inscription: “No to anti-Semitism.” In the hands of the children is the same diary in which the football players leave autographs.

But this new attempt to quell the scandal proved clumsy. Lazio fans listened to the diary in silence, but fans of other Italian teams began to drown it out with contemptuous whistles and singing anthems. The Stampa newspaper writes that this happened at the matches of Juventus, Fiorentina and even the same Roma. That is, the scandal went far beyond the borders of Rome. The lesson of tolerance for Italian fans failed.

The most discussed topic in Italian football in recent days has been the anti-Semitism of local fans. Over the course of two rounds of Serie A, scandals break out at almost every game, which began with the antics of the ultras of the Roman Lazio. Because of them, in Italy, instead of football stars, they began to more often discuss Anne Frank, who died during the Holocaust, known throughout the world thanks to her diary.

It all started at the match “Lazio” - “Cagliari”, held on October 22. The Stadio Olimpico's north stand, where fans usually gather, was closed due to racist chants at previous games. The club allowed fans to occupy the south stand, which is considered home to the ultras of Roma, the main antagonist of Lazio and rival in the Rome derby.

Fans of both teams hate each other, and this conflict has not only a football, but a political background. Traditionally, Lazio ultras, for whom Benito Mussolini used to support, adhere to right-wing views, while Roma fans are left-wing. “Laziale” insultingly calls their opponents “Jews,” and the “Romans” answer them “fascists.”

Finding themselves in someone else's stands, Lazio fans scrawled offensive graffiti on the walls and pasted up stickers depicting Anne Frank in a burgundy Roma uniform, hinting at the nationality of those who care about the club. The head of the Jewish community of Rome, Ruth Duregello, attracted public attention to this prank. “This is not a podium, this is not football, this is not a sport. Anti-Semites have no place in stadiums!” she wrote on Twitter.

The prank was condemned at the highest state level. Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi retweeted Duregello's post. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni made a denunciatory speech. “There are fans who think they can make fun of Anne Frank's personality. This is unimaginable and unacceptable, this cannot be allowed to get away with and be underestimated,” the politician said.

Lazio were also dissatisfied with the actions of the fans. “We always condemn racism in all its forms. A small group of people did this when the majority would not do such a thing. We are concerned that a few reckless people have caused so much damage to the club,” said team press officer Arturo Diaconale.

The club did not limit itself to just words to apologize for the actions of the fans. A Lazio delegation led by president Claudio Lotito and defender Wallace Fortuna dos Santos visited a Roman synagogue to highlight the team's intolerance towards various forms of discrimination. Lotito announced that Lazio fans would go on a tour of the former Auschwitz concentration camp every year.

Posted by Serie A TIM (@seriea_tim) Oct 24, 2017 at 9:23 am PDT

“I see how the world is gradually turning into a desert, and I hear the approach of thunder, bringing death to us too, I feel the suffering of millions of people. And yet, when I look at the heavens, somehow I feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty will also end, and peace and tranquility will one day return,” such a passage was chosen as an edification to the fans.

This action did not please Lazio fans, many of whom said they would boycott the match with Bologna. Those who came to the Renato Dall'Ara stadium either missed reading the diary, or at that moment were singing the fascist song “We Don’t Care,” which mentions Mussolini.