'We are all Anne Frank'

(Photo by Arne List)

Reverend Martin Niemoller, who spent seven years in concentration camps for speaking out against Hitler, famously said:  …Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out –

because I was not a Jew.  Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

The current Italian foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, is heeding Niemoller’s warning.  He recently spoke out against the anti-Semitism that’s been blatant within European stadiums.  This tide of hatred, coupled with racism and

homophobia, has been widespread.

The Italian soccer federation therefore ruled that a passage from Anne Frank’s diary will be “read aloud at all soccer matches in Italy this week.”  This was decided after removing

“shocking displays” of anti-Semitic stadium stickers with Anne Frank’s image on them.

Excerpts from Frank’s diary are as follows:  I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too…  And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better…

Alfano is hoping to bring about such change.  He warns those inclined to look the other way:  Anne Frank does not represent a people or an ethnic group.  We are all Anne Frank when faced with the unthinkable.

Resources

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/lazio-soccer-club-president-pledges-fight-anti-semitism-50677039 

Copyright October 25, 2017 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved