Rome scrubs antisemitic graffiti from Jewish Quarter on 85th anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht

MILAN (AP) — Rome is removing antisemitic graffiti that was scrawled on buildings in the city’s old Jewish Quarter on Thursday, which marked the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht — or the “Night of Broken Glass” — in which the Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria in 1938.

The graffiti, which included a star of David, the equal sign and a Nazi swastika, was being removed, the city said in a statement.

“Events like this cause dismay, enormous concern and (bring) to mind the period of racial persecution,’’ said Alessandro Luzon, Rome’s liaison with the Jewish Community.

On Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis killed at least 91 people, vandalized 7,500 Jewish businesses and burned more than 1,400 synagogues. The pogrom became known as the Kristallnacht and marked a turning point in the escalating persecution of Jews that eventually led to the murder of 6 million European Jews by the Nazis and their supporters during the Holocaust.

In the northern city of Treviso, a private English-language middle and high school on Thursday suspended a teacher who made antisemitic statements on her private social media account. The H-Farm School said the “hateful language ... is the absolute antithesis of the values in which our school believes.”

Antisemitic incidents have been on the rise in Europe in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, sparked by the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas incursion into southern Israel that killed 1,400 people. Israel has responded with a relentless bombing campaign and a ground offensive in Gaza that has killed thousands of Palestinians.