Monti Becomes First Italian PM to Commemorate 1943 Nazi Roundup
Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti addressed a ceremony on
Tuesday night commemorating the 69th anniversary of the World
War II round-up and deportation of over a thousand Roman Jews to
Auschwitz. The occasion marked the first time an Italian premier
attended the annual event. Monti said that remembering the past
is “the way to preserve our history and to draw lessons for the
present and, above all, for the future,” "One cannot help but
connect what happened with the round-up in the ghetto with the
ignoble racial laws instituted [by Fascist dictator Benito
Mussolini in Italy] in 1938," he said. Several thousand people,
including government officials and other dignitaries, gathered
outside Rome’s Great Synagogue, to mark the somber anniversary.
Participants lined up behind a black banner saying "There is no
future without memory." While Monti recognized that anti-
Semitism remains a grave threat, he reassured the Jewish
community saying, "I will no