Overview

• At a Union of Italian Jewish Communities event at CNEL in Rome, Family Minister Eugenia Roccella questioned the purpose of school visits to Auschwitz, referring to them as “gite.”
• Roccella argued that such trips have reinforced the idea that antisemitism belongs only to the fascist past and said it has been re-legitimized during the latest phase of the Israel–Palestine conflict.
• Auschwitz survivor and life senator Liliana Segre condemned the comments, stressing that education must rest on historical truth and rejecting any minimization of Holocaust memory.
• Opposition leaders, including Democratic Party chief Elly Schlein, called on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to distance herself from Roccella’s remarks.
• Reporting noted no formal retraction or government distancing, and at least one Jewish community figure, former Rome community head Riccardo Pacifici, publicly praised the minister’s stance.