We are all Anne Frank

The holy pictures and stickers with the picture of Anne Frank wearing a jersey of the Roma football team sold at the Olympic Stadium during the last home match of the Lazio team are just the latest, sad deed by a “group of supporters” who, over the years have been guilty of crimes and unworthy acts of every kind, from hateful banners bearing phrases like “Honour to the Tiger Arkan” or “Team of Negros, terrace of Jews”, to choruses against Jews and coloured people that systematically lead to closure of the North Stand, where the Lazio extremists, considered to be one of the “blackest” groups if supporters in the world, stand.

Also last Sunday, the North Stand was closed, although the Lazio manager, Claudio Lotito, who has always opposed the most extreme fringe of Lazio fans, allowed them entry into the South Stand, at a cost of €1.

We share the leading article by Mario Calabresi, the editor of the newspaper La Repubblica, because we can no longer pass over the deeds of a few imbeciles, they can longer be tolerated, inside or outside a stadium.

The idea that the picture of Anne Frank can be used to insult someone is something so retarded and grotesque that it should disqualify anyone that thinks of it permanently. That face is in the hearts of every student who has read her diary and seen her as the ideal classmate; that girl did not tell us about her death, but about life, about her dreams, hopes, future, even though she found herself deep in the darkness of humanity. Thanks to her, generations have understood what Nazism was, what it meant to live in hiding meant, be deported and die in an extermination camp.

Last night, when we saw the photo of her wearing the Roma jersey, used by a group of extreme Lazio supporters to shame their rivals, we became indignant, as we always do when we have to face the banality of evil. But this time, we felt we had to go one step further.

How could Anne Frank be considered an insult? We need to turn the tables, give her back her importance, turn her into a tribute, we cannot leave her alone, in the hands of ignorance. And so, we are all Anne Frank, she can and must have the jersey of every team, and be part of our lives. Every club should adopt her as their banner, to respond without hesitation to the deeds of the stadium’s extremists.

Especially today, when not only part of the stadiums’ stands, but a part of the society is becoming the breeding-ground for racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Because Anne was the young girl who was unable to survive until the Liberation. Her diary is the story of a life cut short, and becomes part of the lives of all of us. We have to take Anne back, we cannot leave her in the hands of those who want to walk all over her; we have to continue reading her story and to dedicate streets, schools and libraries to her.

From La Repubblica