An Italian woman dubbed the “living memory” of the Holocaust has been placed under police protection after she reported receiving 200 threat messages a day.
Online threats started after Liliana Segre, 89, who is also a senator, proposed a commission to combat intolerance, racism, and hate speech.
“I appealed to the conscience of everyone and thought that a commission against hatred as a principle would be accepted by all,” Segre said at the time, according to Italy’s La Repubblica.
Her 61-year-old son Luciano Belli Paci told The New York Times her state of shock.
“She is shocked by these tensions and by this entire situation,” he said, adding that she is exhausted by the immense pressure and political controversies.
Segre is one of 25 survivors from 776 Italian children under the age of 14 who were sent to a Nazi concentration camp.
When Segre was 13 years old, she and her father fled Italy to Switzerland but were denied refuge and were handed to the Nazis, according to The New York Times.
They were jailed in Milan and her father was later deported to Auschwitz where he died weeks later. Her grandparents also died in Auschwitz after being arrested.
Serge herself was moved twice Germany but was later rescued by the Soviet Red Army.
When the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, made her a senator for life in 2018, she said at the time that it was her obligation to “pass on the memory” of the Holocaust, and she has spent much of her time visiting schools to recount what happened.
In October, Segre called on people to combat hate, racism, and intolerance, The New York Times reported. But Italy’s ruling party abstained from supporting her proposal.
The proposal was approved by the Senate on Oct. 31 without the votes of the ruling party.
Segre said that the abstentions made her feel “like a Martian in the Senate.”
After the vote, Segre reported receiving around 200 threats every day.
The threats were so serious that Renato Saccone, the Prefect of Milan, dispatched two officers to guard Segre at public events.
“Social media is full of racist and anti-Semitic messages, so I am not surprised anonymous people are attacking Mrs. Segre,” historian Anna Foa told NBC. “What really surprised me and worries me is the stand by right-wing politicians against an old woman who survived the Holocaust as a child.”
“This is not a problem only for Jews. Anti-Semitism is usually of a much wider tendency to discriminate minorities, including foreigners, Muslims, or homosexuals,” Ruth Dureghello, the president of Rome’s Jewish community, said.
