Jewish marchers were forced out of a Liberation Day rally in Milan on Saturday, after anti-Israel activists chanted “Long live Hitler” and hurled Holocaust taunts, the Combat Antisemitism Movement said on Tuesday.
🇮🇹 Milan, Italy, April 27, 2026: Jewish marchers were forced out of a WWII Liberation Day rally after crowds chanted “Long live Hitler” and hurled Holocaust taunts. Descendants of fighters who helped defeat Nazism were driven out under police escort. Source: @espressonline pic.twitter.com/Uk7eEZjKfM
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) April 27, 2026
Italy’s Liberation Day, observed annually on April 25, marks the 1945 uprising that led to the end of Nazi occupation and the fall of the Fascist regime. The national holiday honors the Italian resistance that paved the way for Rome’s transition to a republic.
According to Italian media reports, descendants of fighters who were part of the Jewish Brigade—a military unit of the British Army made up primarily of Jewish volunteers from the Land of Israel who fought against the Nazis—had to be escorted out by police.
Jewish community members reportedly marched only a few hundred yards before they were subjected to antisemitic abuse, including chants of “You should have been made into soap.”
Italy’s Jewish community documented a record high of 963 antisemitic incidents in 2025, a 10% increase over 2024, according to figures published two months ago.
The number of incidents documented by the Milan-based Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea (Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation) has nearly quadrupled since 2022, when the tally was 241. It rose to 453 and 877 in the following two years, before reaching the 963-incident high mark last year.
