Liliana Segre is an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor and Italian senator-for-life who has been under police protection because of anti-Semitic threats to her life. On Tuesday, Segre was escorted through the streets of Milan, along with hundreds of Italian mayors and thousands of supporters, in a march of support. Behind her a banner was unfurled that read “Hatred has no future.”
Segre has come under fire from the right-wing fascistic elements of our world after promoting “a new parliamentary panel against racism, discrimination, anti-Semitism and online hatred,” according to TIME magazine.
Italy has seen the rise of neofascist right-wing elements like the rest of the world in recent years. The Forza Nuova party has taken a violent line on refugees and immigrants as the reasons for the economic inequalities that have plagued Italy. And anti-Semitic fervor has underpinned this fascistic hatred as it always does. Quite a strange flag for people to fight against, but then again, our president is Donald Trump with henchmen like Sebastian Gorka.
CNN reports that 600 mayors marched with Segre, while the crowd chanted her name and sang an anti-fascist song "Bella Ciao."
"I have known hatred. I have known what it means to become a reject of that civil society of which I believed I belonged," Segre said addressing the crowd. "I have heard the words of hatred, hateful and insulting, and then I saw with my eyes the realization of the ferocious program prepared from hatred."
Segre said she believes that the children are our future and our hope, saying that they will carry the “candles of memory” in the future and help rid the world of hate.
Enjoy some video of the celebration below.