Rome unveils mural of Holocaust survivors

Milan mural against anti-Semitism moves to Rome after being defaced twice.

A mural depicting two of Italy's last remaining Holocaust survivors, Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano, has been unveiled in Rome's Jewish Ghetto district after it was vandalised in Milan. Titled Anti-Semitism, History Repeating, the work by pop artist aleXsandro Palombo shows Segre and Modiano wearing striped concentration camp uniforms and bulletproof vests with yellow Stars of David. The mural was acquired by the city of Rome and inaugurated on Thursday in the presence of the mayor Roberto Gualtieri, the president of the Shoah Museum Foundation, Mario Venezia, and the head of the Jewish community in Rome, Victor Fadlun. The unveiling came ahead of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

A street art mural depicting two of Italy's last remaining Holocaust survivors, Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano, wearing concentration camp uniforms and bulletproof vests with yellow Stars of David, is unveiled in Rome's Jewish quarter after it was vandalised in Milan. pic.twitter.com/OPbgH8yjQC— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) January 25, 2025

The work was installed under the plaque that commemorates the Nazi roundup of Rome's Jews on 16 October 1943, which led to the deportation of more than 1,000 people, of whom only 16 made it back to Italy alive. After being removed last month from Piazzale Loreto in Milan, the mural was recreated by Palombo and placed in the Jewish Ghetto in the shadow of the Portico d'Ottavia monument. Palombo's mural first appeared in Milan in September and was vandalised on two separate occasions: first the Stars of David were defaced, next the faces of Segre and Modiano were scratched off. The vandalism was widely condemned, both in Italy and internationally, with Mario Venezia slamming it as a "vile and insane act". “These thugs tried to distort the sense of memory, but they failed" - Venezia said - "A scratch doesn’t erase people, or what was. They can damage the walls, but the history and its teachings remain intact.” "The mural represents the importance of memory" - Mayor Gualtieri said - "of not forgetting the tragedy of the Shoah, the lowest point reached in the history of humanity, which we have the duty to remember, honouring the witnesses and the victims, fighting so that no one forgets and this horror is never repeated again". The work will be visible outdoors until 2 February and will subsequently find a permanent location in the Casina dei Vallati, run by the Shoah Museum Foundation, in the city's Jewish quarter. Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano Segre, an Italian life senator, and fellow Holocaust survivor Modiano are both aged 94. Born on the island of Rhodes, when it was under Italian occupation, Modiano was deported with his father Jacob and his sister Lucia to Auschwitz in 1944. Sami was the only one of his family to survive. When Segre was 13, she and her father Alberto were deported to Auschwitz from Platform 21 in Milan Central Station. On arrival at the concentration camp, the young Liliana was separated from her beloved father. She never saw him again. Photo Wanted in Rome, 25 January 2025.