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Roccella Calls Segre, Offers Senate Testimony After 'Auschwitz Trips' Remarks

After a conciliatory call to Segre, Roccella now seeks to clarify her intent before the Senate commission.

Overview

  • At a UCEI event, Minister Eugenia Roccella questioned the educational value of school visits to Auschwitz, calling them 'gite' and arguing they helped confine antisemitism to a fascist-era narrative while warning of its resurgence after the latest IsraelPalestine conflict.
  • Holocaust survivor and senator for life Liliana Segre condemned the framing, saying she could hardly believe a minister would describe the trips that way and stressing that historical truth must ground students’ education.
  • Roccella has telephoned Segre and signaled willingness to appear before the Senate commission on racism and antisemitism, which Segre chairs, as Fratelli d’Italia has formally requested an audition.
  • The commission met to hear journalists Tommaso Cerno and Daniele Capezzone on related threats, and a session with the minister is considered likely following her offer to testify.
  • The Memoriale della Shoah in Milan called Roccella’s characterization a 'false historic' claim, while figures such as Riccardo Pacifici and Milan community leader Walker Meghnagi defended her warning about contemporary antisemitism; opposition leaders urged Giorgia Meloni to distance the government from the remarks.