Italy: Jewish groups target human rights organizations ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day

A day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which will take place on Jan. 27, Jewish groups in Italy projected messages criticizing several human rights organizations, which they described as acting with "hypocrisy," onto the Pyramid of Cestius, an important monument in Rome, Italian newspaper La Republicca reported.

The Jewish community groups targeted, among others, Amnesty International, which accused Israel of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip during its anti-terrorist war following the brutal massacre of Oct. 7. It also criticized Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross, which have come under fire for failing to visit Israeli hostages who were and are being held by the Hamas terrorist group in the Palestinian coastal enclave.

"If Israel had bombed the trains to Auschwitz, you would have sided with Hitler," read one of the slogans on the Roman monument. "Hypocrisy and antisemitism are your banners," noted another.

An 'understandable reaction'

The Holocaust Foundation Museum in Rome referred this Monday to the criticism made by Jewish groups, claiming it is an "understandable reaction" to antisemitism disguised as sympathy for the Gaza victims.

"Today, on Remembrance Day, writings have appeared on some walls in Rome that make a comparison between the present and the past, a form of reaction to a long period of antisemitic harassment and slogans, of attacks on Israel that took place even the day after the fateful Oct. 7," the organization said.

What is International Holocaust Remembrance Day?

International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates Jewish and non-Jewish victims of Nazism. It takes place on Jan. 27 because on that date, 80 years ago, the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp took place, where the Nazis murdered more than 1.1 million people, mostly members of the Jewish community. In the gas chambers and cremation ovens, up to 5,000 people were killed each day.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly on Nov. 1, 2005 and commemorated for the first time in 2006.